Fighting Deafness
by Anubis Enfield
Summary: Sound is something hard to explain. Even harder when you can't always hear. So what happens when the Doctor shows up and takes in interest me? Amy's more-than-hard-of-hearing friend? Better yet, what do I do? Partial deafness and fighting aliens don't exactly mix well, after all.
1. Chapter 1

**Came up with this one while reading an excellent manga about the struggles of dealing with partial deafness. Made me curious what the Doctor would do with someone who is handicapped in such a way. I am _not_ deaf, however, so if anything seems inaccurate, review and let me know and I will edit it. Everything in here is from what information I could find online.**

* * *

I sighed quietly as I walked down the street with my hands in my pockets and my headphones in my ears; the music loud enough to be heard by the few people who walked past, giving me dirty looks. I was used to it and just ignored them. I already knew very few people liked me here in Leadworth and the only ones who did were the friends of a friend. _Though, I suppose we are_ all _friends, now that they let me move in after that... incident back home_. I grimaced, pushing the thoughts out of my head and adjusting the grocery bags looped around my elbow as I texted Amy Pond.

 _I'm on my way back._

 _Better help me with the groceries._

 _They're heavy._

 _-LT_

I tucked my phone away and allowed the bags to slip back down into my hand as I sighed again. _Next time, I'm stealing Rory's car._ Amy was the one who let me move into a room in her house, though her and Rory weren't too willing to let a friend of Mels' just walk in and live in their home. I knew why. I wouldn't let me in either. With tattoos all up my right arm and another on my calf and the smell of smoke clinging to my clothes, I could be quite the imposing figure, if I wasn't so lanky. 5'11" and I was hardly all muscle, though I did have some. I worked at a tattoo parlor in the next town and had met Mels there as I gave one of her friends a tattoo. I somehow got dragged into her group after that and found myself being pulled into all sorts of trouble, but after the incident, she figured it'd be best for me to stay someplace a bit less... _bitter_.

I suppose my battered appearance when I showed up at Amy's door in the middle of the night soaking wet from the recent rain, may have helped convince her to let me stay for a short time at least. And I had been planning on leaving the moment I found someplace to stay, but we'd grown friendly towards one another and she let me stay rent free; though I still slipped some money into her wallet when she wasn't looking. I liked her though and her straight forward attitude meshed with my quiet nature easily, which only made things better with how easily I was able to hear her.

I had gotten very sick when I was younger and afterward, my hearing hadn't been the greatest and has since gotten worse. My left ear was nearly completely deaf and my right wasn't much better. But Amy had a loud voice that easily carried and I found that I could hear her better than most other people. Mels sometimes spoke too fast and I couldn't catch everything she said at times, and Rory spoke too quietly to hear half the time too. Amy though, seemed to be the perfect pitch and loudness, so I almost always heard her. Helped me feel a bit more _normal_ and gave me a chance to hold conversations without having to ask her to slow down, speak louder, or repeat herself.

 _Weird_. I thought, pulling out my phone once more. _She usually texts back by now._ I checked my phone, still seeing nothing and put it away before walking up towards her house; balancing the groceries as I tried to get out my keys. Once I was inside and placed the groceries down on the kitchen table, I pulled out my earbuds and called to her upstairs.

"I'm back with the groceries! Why didn't you text me back?"

I didn't catch her response and sighed, leaving the groceries for now and putting my hearing aid in my left ear as I made for the stairs. I heard something else as I adjusted my hearing aid and frowned curiously up at the ceiling.

" _Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded."_ It repeated on a loop and that only confused me more. _"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."_

"Right then. That's odd. Hope it's not talking about us." I muttered quietly, having paused at the bottom of the steps before making to head up them once more.

Before I could get more than a few steps up, however, Amy came rushed down with someone hurrying behind her.

"What—"

"No time for questions, Leon! We need to go, now!"

She grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the house, to the back door where we waited outside as the man pointed some silver stick at the lock, giving her a look.

"Kissogram?"

"Yes, a Kissogram!" She snapped as he jumped off the steps and we followed; myself _very_ confused. "What's going on?!"

She went after him, but they were now both face-to-face and arguing.

"Why'd you pretend to be a police woman?"

"You broke into my house. It was this or a French maid. What's going on? Tell me." She demanded as we followed him through the garden and over to a police box.

A familiar _blue_ police box.

"Tell me!"

"An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?"

I raised my hand. "Yes. Who are you?" I then turned to Amy. "And did he say _aliens_ or is my hearing off?"

Amy roller her eyes, whispering to me just loud enough for me to hear. "This is the Doctor. I told you about him, remember?"

I nodded, eyeing the man, before turning back to her and pointing to the house. "I take it I can't go back in there and put the ice cream in the freezer? It's going to melt."

"No!" She shouted, waving her hands as the Doctor rattled with the door to his police box.

"No, no, no, no! Don't do that! Not now!" He shouted; his voice also pretty easy to understand so far. "It's still rebuilding. Not letting us in."

I pointed at it, also whispering like she had, though I wasn't sure why. "And that's the ship? With a swimming pool in the library?"

"Yup." She said, popping the 'p', before turning to look up at the house; catching something I didn't hear.

I turned as well and saw a man and his Rottweiler standing at the window, _barking_ , apparently.

"Is he _barking_?" I questioned and Amy groaned, grabbing my arm and pushing the Doctor with her other arm.

"Come on!"

He struggled though and pointed at the shed, before rushing towards it. "No, wait. Hang on. Wait, wait, wait, wait. The shed. I destroyed that shed last time I was here. Smashed it to pieces."

"So there's a new one. Let's go." Amy argued.

"Yeah, but the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least." He sniffed it and then stuck his finger in his mouth, making me raise a brow. "Twelve years. I'm not six months late. I'm twelve _years_ late." He said, moving towards Amy.

"He's coming." Amy said, trying to rush him along, though I could see her plan falling apart along with her self-control.

 _Oh, Amy. I knew he'd hurt you by doing that when you were younger, but he's about to find out just how badly._

"You said six months. Why did you say six months?"

"We've got to go." She persisted.

"This matters. This is important. Why did you say six months?"

"Why did you say five minutes?!" She shouted at him, before realization dawned on both of them.

"What?"

"Come on." She grabbed his hand and tugged him along as he continued to question it.

"What?"

"Come on!" She shouted, and pulled him past the man and his dog standing at the back door as I hurried after them.

"What?"

We ran past a bicyclist up one of the roads as he rang his bell at us and I stopped with Amy and the Doctor as I fiddled with my hearing aid. _Why can I still hear the voice? I shouldn't be able to hear anything if we're not at the house. Unless... that's not where it's coming from._

"You're Amelia." The Doctor said, bringing my attention back to him and Amy as we started walking again.

"And you're late."

"You're Amelia Pond. You're the little girl."

"I'm Amelia and you're late." She repeated, obviously angry, but I knew better than to try and stop the angry Pond.

"What happened?"

"Twelve years."

"You hit me with a cricket bat."

I raised a brow. "You hit him with a cricket bat?"

She ignored me. "Twelve years."

"A cricket bat."

"Twelve years and four psychiatrists."

"Four?"

"...I kept biting them."

"Why?"

"They said you weren't real."

The Doctor turned to me then, looking me up and down. "And who're you?"

"Leon Travinsky." I said, eyeing him as well. _Hm, bit of a fixer-upper, but nice._

He looked between Amy and I. "And you two are—"

"No!"

"God, no." I muttered, waving a hand. "It's the other side of the fence for me."

It took him a moment, before my words dawned on him. "Oh. _Oh_. You're gay."

"Mm, only a bit." I said, before bringing up my earlier question. "How come I can still hear that announcement even though we're not in the house?"

He frowned, looking at me. "You can still hear it?"

I was about to say yes, but then he and Amy turned to an ice cream truck nearby and I figured I'd missed something again.

"No, no, no. Come on. What? We're being staked out by an ice cream van."

"I don't think that it's coming from just the ice cream van." I said, but I don't think I was heard as the Doctor and Amy had already rushed to said vehicle.

Sighing, I headed over as the Doctor picked up the radio and held it to his head; the ice cream vendor giving me a small smile.

"Can I get you anything, Leon? You helped me fix the freezer on this thing after all."

"Banana split then." I said with a nod. "And you just needed a new coil, is all. Yours had a leak."

"Oh, but I wouldn't of been able to fix it." He said, before passing me the plastic tub and a spoon, which I took gratefully. "On the house."

I nodded my thanks and turned to Amy as she looked at a few other confused people.

"Doctor, what's happening?"

The Doctor then turned to me and got in my face before leaning to the side and pointing at my ear.

"What's that then? A transmitter?"

I furrowed my brows, pushing his hand away from my ear. "Hearing aid."

He frowned, eyeing me. "But you're what? Twenty?"

"I have partial deafness." I snapped at him, before eating some of the ice cream to calm me down. "Not like I wanted it."

His expression slipped slightly into a guiltier one. "Right. Sorry."

I knew I couldn't hold it against him. We'd just met and it wouldn't be the first time someone had been rude about my hearing impairment, so I shrugged and let it go.

"It's fine. Doesn't matter."

He pointed a finger at me, grunting, before turning on the spot and rushing over to a fence and jumping over it; Amy and I being forced to follow, though we went _around_ the obstacle and into the home of Mrs. Angelo and her grandson Jeff. I knew them from when I had to come by and fix their plumbing, and they were nice enough to me. Better than most people in town, anyway.

"Hello, Leon! Surprising to see you here." Mrs. Angelo greeted with a small smile, though I could tell she was speaking far louder than usual, judging by the wince from Amy and the Doctor. "The plumbing's been great since you fixed it."

"That's good, Mrs. Angelo, but you don't have to shout. I can hear you." I tapped my hearing aid a few times. "Brought my aid this time."

"Ah, I always said it was a shame for your impairment. You're still so young."

"Yeah, well, nothing I can do now." I said, remembering why I didn't hang out around town much.

 _As nice as she is, she always seems to know how to say all the wrong things._

"Amy, who is your friend?" She asked, bringing my attention to the Doctor once more.

"Who's Amy? You were Amelia."

"Yeah? Now, I'm Amy." Amy replied and I knew she only changed her name to that because of him; though I silently wondered if he'd figure that out.

"Amelia Pond. That was a great name." He said, wistfully.

"Bit fairy tale." She quipped back and I could feel the tension rising.

Thankfully, Mrs. Angelo ruined it.

"I know you, don't I? I've seen you somewhere before."

"Not me. Brand new face." He opened his mouth to show her his teeth or something. "First time on. And what sort of job's a Kissogram?"

 _New face? What, like plastic surgery?_ I frowned slightly, looking for any tell-tale signs of that, but seeing none. _If not plastic surgery, then what? He said there was a 'multiform' alien or something at Amy's. Could he be one too? As impossible as it sounds, I'm ready to believe in anything at the moment._ I shook my head out of my thoughts and missed out on whatever Amy responded with, seeing the Doctor pointed his stick at the radio he'd picked up as the voice changed to different languages.

"Okay, so it's everywhere. In every language. They're broadcasting to the whole world."

He rushed to a window and I followed behind him and Amy, speaking my thoughts out loud.

"So when they say 'human residence', they're not just talking about Amy's house then."

He pulled his head back in from the window and headed my way, looking around at me before smiling and patting my shoulder. "Well, aren't you a clever clogs! Right on point."

"I would take that as a compliment, but in this situation, I feel it's not something to be happy about."

"No, you're right." He said, dropping the smile and getting serious as he paced. "Okay, planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core? They're going to need a forty percent fission blast."

Jeff walked in then and the Doctor turned to him, eyeing him as though he was trying to size him up.

"But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So, assuming a medium sized starship, that's twenty minutes. What do you think, twenty minutes? Yeah, twenty minutes. We've got twenty minutes."

"Twenty minutes to what?" Amy asked as Jeff pointed at him as he came back over to us.

"Are you the Doctor?"

"He is, isn't he?" Mrs. Angelo said excitedly as the Doctor looked around confused. "He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor. All those cartoons you did when you were little. The Raggedy Doctor. It's him."

Amy said something, but I missed it as the Doctor gave her a look.

"Cartoons..."

He turned and walked off to sit on the couch in front of the TV as Jeff came over with a grin.

"Gran, it's him, isn't it? It's really him!"

"Jeff, shut up." Amy said, heading to the Doctor as I did the same; finishing off my banana split. "Twenty minutes to what?"

"Incineration." I said, catching her attention as the Doctor snapped his fingers and pointed at me. "The 'human residence' that the announcement is talking about, is the world."

"Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship. And it's going to incinerate the planet." The Doctor explained. "Twenty minutes to the end of the world."

It took him a moment, but he soon got up and rushed out of the house as Amy and I headed after him like lambs to a slaughter.

"What is this place? Where am I?" He asked as a little boy passed us; looking at me fearfully before rushing off with his toy helicopter.

"Leadworth." I muttered, not letting the little boy's actions get to me.

"Where's the rest of it?"

"This is it." Amy replied.

"Is there an airport?"

"Nope." I hummed.

"A nuclear power station?"

"No." Amy said next.

"Not even a little one?"

"No. the most you got today is a closed post office. Not much help there." I said, before he groaned.

"Nearest city?"

"Gloucester. Half an hour by car."

"We don't have half an hour. Do we have a car?" The Doctor asked and I gave him a look.

"Why bother with a car if we don't have the time?"

"Good point. But that's fantastic, that is. Twenty minutes to save the world and I've got a closed post office. _What_ is that?" He said, pointing at a small pond and looking at it.

"It's a duck pond." Amy said, confused and he stepped away and faced her.

"Why aren't there any ducks?"

"Yeah, I've always wondered about that." I muttered. "There's never any ducks around. I just call it a pond."

The Doctor nodded towards me, giving Amy a pointed look before she punched my shoulder, making me wince.

"Don't encourage him."

The Doctor suddenly twitched back unnaturally and I hurried over to him as he clutched his chest, before I knew what I was doing.

"Are you alright?"

"This is too soon. I'm not ready. I'm not done yet."

"Done with what?" I asked, curious, but also worried; though when the sky darkened, I found something else to be equally worried about. "Um, I'm guessing that's not good?"

"What's happening? Why's it going dark?" Amy asked, before the sun went from dark to an unusual swirl of oranges. "So, what's wrong with the sun?"

"Forcefield or something to keep Prisoner Zero from leaving the planet I'm guessing?"

He turned to me in surprise. "How'd you figure that?"

I shrugged. "It's what I'd do. Can't let him escape no matter what, so keep him trapped." I turned to him. "Why? Am I right?"

"Spot on, actually. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere. Now they're getting ready to boil the planet." He then got up and looked around as people began wandering out with their phones. "Oh, and here they come. The human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone."

I let his arm go, once I realized he wasn't going to keel over, but caught sight of Amy freaking out.

"This isn't real, is it? This is some kind of big wind up."

"Why would I wind you up?" The Doctor asked, confused and I frowned at him with a slight glare.

"Probably because you did already. You told her you had a time machine." I said, moving to her side and giving her a sort of side hug as he looked a bit guilty.

He turned to Amy though. "And you believed me."

"Then I grew up."

"Oh, you never want to do that. No. Hang on. Shut up. Wait. I missed it." He smacked himself upside the head. "I saw it and I missed it." He hit himself again. "What did I see? I saw. What did I see? I saw, I saw, I saw—"

He looked around for a second, after spacing out momentarily, and I looked around too, before spotting Rory a little ways away surprisingly _not_ photographing the sun. _But why? Everyone is and he's not. Why? There's something else._

"Twenty minutes." The Doctor said, rounding about to face us once more. "I _can_ do it. Twenty minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help me."

"No." Amy said before I could get a response out.

"Amy?"

"I'm sorry?" The Doctor questioned, confused as Amy grabbed his tie.

"No!"

"Amy! No, no, what are you—" The Doctor was cut off as she pushed him up against a car someone was getting out of and I hurried over as well, trying to stop her.

"Amy, what are you doing? We should help him!"

She glared at me and grabbed my shirt as well, shoving the Doctor's tie and my shirt into the car door, before slamming it shut and pinning us there; locking the car.

"Are you out of your mind?" The Doctor questioned as I gave her a disbelieving look.

"Why me, too?!"

"Who are you?" She demanded from the Doctor, getting in his face a bit as I struggled to move a bit further away from him; _our_ faces only inches away thanks to how she trapped us both.

"You know who I am."

"No, really. Who are you?"

"Amy, is now _really_ the time? The Earth's about to be incinerated." I argued and her glare turned to me, making me shut up.

"Look at the sky. End of the world, twenty minutes." The Doctor also attempted to point out.

"Well, better talk quickly, then." She responded as the man beside her spoke up.

"Amy, I am going to need my car back."

"Yes, in a bit. Now go and have coffee." She snapped at him, scaring him into listening to her.

"Right, yes." He said, walking off looking worried, before Amy turned to me.

"And _you_ , why are you so accepting of this? He just pops out of nowhere, tells you aliens are attacking, and you believe him?! Just like that?! I'll bet you haven't even heard half of what he's been saying!"

I winced at that, feeling her words jab me in the chest as she realized what she'd said and quickly covered her mouth. I couldn't hear her apology. It was too soft and her hand covered her mouth, so I couldn't lip-read, and I suddenly felt rather out of place. Ever since she told me about the Raggedy Doctor who'd come to save her when she was a kid and then left her, I'd been jealous. I never told her this, of course. She'd expected me to laugh at her for believing in such a thing, but I couldn't. I'd heard about how her aunt treated her and I thought it was actually really good that she had this... raggedy man there to help her through her time alone. Sure, she'd had psychiatrists and was bullied a bit in school, but she always believe that the Raggedy Doctor would come back for her and used that to help move her along through life.

My life was far different. I didn't have a so-called imaginary friend to wait for when I was a kid, let alone someone like the Doctor. So when he popped up talking about aliens and running around like an idiot, and even _complimenting_ me. How could I not? How could I not follow him and attempt to get a taste of the childhood I'd missed out on? The door lock clicked and I opened the door; having missed out on whatever the Doctor and Amy were talking about as the two of them rushed off and I just stood there by the car. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and letting it out as I tried to stay calm. _I should've known. They all think it. Everyone does. I can't have friends, because we're in two different worlds. I'm stuck alone while they can go off and talk and have fun with whomever they please. I can't. They talk too fast, or too softly, or I zone out and miss things entirely and have to get them to repeat it. Even Amy... She's not in the world I am. She's with the Doctor and Rory and Mels. They don't understand. I can hear. I_ can _... Just not enough._

"Leon."

I didn't bother to turn around, knowing by the voice and how clear it was, that it was Amy.

"Leon, I'm really sorry. I-I didn't mean it. Really. I was just frustrated a-and... I thought I'd lost a friend. That you believed him, before you'd help me."

I sighed and turned to her, seeing the guilt plain as day on her face. "I wouldn't do that, Amy, and... it's fine. I know you didn't mean it." _Lies._ "Let's just help the Doctor."

She nodded, looking slightly better, though I knew that I'd probably let something slip and she was still suspicious.

"Why do you believe him, though?" She asked.

"He's the childhood I never had." I said quietly. "I'm... just making up for lost time, I suppose."

"Oh..."

Things grew quiet between us, but once we rushed over to where Rory and the Doctor were, Amy quickly turned to Rory as she panted for breath and spoke to him; the Doctor looking at me curiously.

"You're not out of breath."

"Nope." I hummed, keeping calm despite the tense atmosphere between Amy and I. "I go jogging every morning."

"Ooh, good habit."

I shrugged. "I suppose."

Amy brought our attention back to her though. "This is Rory. He's a friend."

"Boyfriend." Rory and I both said.

"Kind of boyfriend."

"Amy." Rory grumbled as I sighed and the Doctor got back on point.

"Man and dog. Why?"

Rory gave the Doctor a once over and I groaned, knowing what was about to happen.

"Oh, my God. It's him."

"Just answer the question." Amy grumbled with a roll of her eyes.

He ignored us. "It's him though. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor."

"Yeah. He came back."

"But he was a story."

"How many people did you tell this story to?" I asked her; I couldn't hear her response.

"He was a game—" Rory was cut off as he was grabbed by the shirt by the Doctor.

"Man and dog. Why? Tell me now." The Doctor demanded, tired of wasting time, I assumed.

"Sorry. Because he can't be there. Because he's—"

"—in a hospital, in a come." The Doctor said with Rory, shocking him.

"Yeah."

"Knew it. Multiform. You see?" The Doctor said, letting him go with a grin as he wiped his hands down his shirt and fixed it, before poking Rory's forehead. "Disguises itself as anything, but it needs a live feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind." He suddenly turned and I followed his gaze to see the same man and his Rottweiler there barking; him heading a little closer. "Prisoner Zero..."

I frowned, thinking. _If he's Prisoner Zero, then all we need to do is give him up to whoever's looking for him. But he's a multiform. He can change shape, so unless we can trap him—No. That won't even work._

"How many shapes can it have?" I asked, before seeing that everyone was turning and looking at something in the sky.

I turned as well, and felt my heart skip a beat at the large, snowflake-shaped ship flying above us with an eyeball in it. It had a beam that was searching for the prisoner, but I got the feeling that it would not be so easy to catch him.

"As many as it wants." The Doctor said, glancing at me as I stared back. "As many as are available to it. It needs a living, but dormant mind."

He was looking at me strangely. Almost as though he was waiting for me to catch onto something, and my mind buzzed with the new information as he faced Prisoner Zero again.

"See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology. And _nothing_ says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." He said, holding up the silver stick he'd been using before.

"Sonic screwdriver? You going to assemble a sonic cabinet or something?" I asked in disbelief, making him turn to me in disbelief.

" _What?_ No! No, I'm going to do this!" He held it high up into the air and pushed the button, making everything around us go haywire—including my hearing aid.

"Ah!" I shouted, grabbing the offending object and pulling it out of my ear as it screeched at a pitch just high enough to cause me pain and as it continued to wail, I grimaced and shoved it in my pocket as I looked around to see what the Doctor had done.

Street lights blew out, an elderly woman's electric wheelchair was rolling off on its own, along with a firetruck. I looked back at the multiform to find it snarling and I moved a bit closer to the Doctor so I could hear him.

"I think someone's going to notice, don't you?"

He pointed it at a telephone box, blowing that up, but then the sonic screwdriver sparked and he dropped it to the ground as it smoked. Quickly, he knelt down to it and shouted angrily.

"No! No! No! No! Don't do that!" He threw it back onto the grass, before standing up and turning towards the spaceship that was leaving. "No! Come back! He's here! Come back! He's here! Prisoner Zero is here! Come back!"

He continued to shout at the leaving ship, but when I turned to look at the multiform, he glowed a dull orange and disappeared down a draining system.

"Doctor?" I said, tapping him on the shoulder. "He's gone, actually. Went down the drain."

"Well, of course it did." He snapped, obviously still upset.

"What do we do now?" Amy asked, having joined us with Rory.

"It's hiding in human form. We need to drive it out into the open. No Tardis, no screwdriver, seventeen minutes. Come on. Think. Think!"

The group of us headed over to the drain it had disappeared down and I gave the Doctor a puzzled frown as I tried to figure things out; him and Amy arguing about the multiform.

"The ship. It can't find him because he changes disguises, right?"

"Right."

"And you said it could have any disguises it wanted as long as they were in a coma, or whatever, yeah?"

"Yes, yes. But how does that help?!" He asked me as he pulled a hand through his hair.

"Can't you just show them the disguises it has? If they knew what he looks like, they could take him. There can't be that many coma patients in this small town."

"Oh... _Oh_ , you genius!" He shouted, grabbing my face and suddenly kissing my forehead; making me redden as Amy gave us both a look.

"What? What'd he say?"

"Just the absolute, most brilliant idea I've heard all day, that's what!" The Doctor grinned, turning to Rory and holding out his hand. "Rory, give me your phone."

"How can he be real? He was never real!" Rory said loudly, still lost about this whole Doctor nonsense.

"Phone! Now! Gimme." The Doctor demanded, taking it off Rory and flipping through the photos.

Rory was muttering something, but without my hearing aid, I could hardly understand his muttering. _But it should still be working, right?_ I dug through my pocket and tried my hearing aid, but whatever the Doctor did with his sonic screwdriver wrecked it somehow and it wouldn't work. _Great. Now I have to go out and spend money on a new one._ I mentally grumbled as I scowled down at the object and pocketed it as the Doctor spoke up.

"These photos. They are all the coma patients?"

"Yeah."

"No." The Doctor disagreed. "They're all the multiform. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."

"We just need to get the ship back here then, right? Show it the photos somehow?" I asked and he nodded.

"Correct again! Leon, was it?"

I nodded as he grinned.

"I'll bet you're a whiz in school. Really clever, you are."

I felt a pang through my chest, not having the heart to tell him I had to drop out due to my hearing. "Thanks."

Amy cut in then, probably seeing that I was uncomfortable. "He had a dog, though. There's a dog in a coma?"

"Well—"

I missed what he said with how quickly he spoke, only hearing something about dreams, before he spoke louder.

"Laptop! Your friend, what was his name? Not him, the good looking one." The Doctor said, gesturing to Rory; who muttered something too lowly for me to hear.

"Jeff." Amy replied, making Rory even more upset.

"He had a laptop in his bag. A laptop. Big bag, _big_ laptop." The Doctor grabbed Amy and Rory about the shoulders. "I need Jeff's laptop. You two, get to the hospital. Get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Phone me when you're done." He glanced at me then. "Leon, you're with me. Come on!"

I nodded, before hurrying after him as he ran off back towards Mrs. Angelo's house. He paused just before entering though and poked me in the chest with his finger sternly.

" _You_."

I blinked at him. "Me?"

"Yes, you. I mentioned school and you got upset. Why?"

"I wasn't upset." I argued, knowing that my indifferent mask had been kept firmly in place, just as it had nearly all twenty years of my life. _So how did he see through it?_

"Fine, not upset, but bothered. Obviously. So tell me. Why?"

"Do we have to do this now?" I questioned instead, hoping to get his mind on a different track instead on keeping it on this one.

"Yes, because it's important."

"Hardly." I muttered quietly, but he caught it, grabbing me by the shoulders and making me stiffen as he got close and looked at me.

"It _is_ important. I may have just met you, Leon, but you're..." He looked me up and down briefly. "...curious. You're quick, like to run, exciting. I like people like that, so I don't want to do anything that may upset them. And that goes for you too. So please. Tell me why."

I swallowed thickly, nervousness creeping into my stomach, though I kept all traces of it off my face as I spoke. "I was forced to drop out of the best law school in the country because of my hearing disability getting worse. So yeah. I _was_ smart in school."

He smiled a bit. "And even cleverer now. Come on then. Let's go borrow that laptop."

I nodded as my lip twitched slightly upward, and followed after him up the stairs to Jeff's room; where he sat on his bed with his laptop in surprise.

"Hello. Laptop. Gimme." The Doctor said right off the bat and Jeff panicked as they fought over it.

"No, no, no, no. Wait."

"It's fine."

"Hang on!"

"Give it here." The Doctor said, snatching it from him and sitting on the end of the bed as I joined him; only to wrinkle my nose at the pornographic pictures on screen.

"Oh, have better taste, Jeff." I grumbled at the A-typical woman on screen.

The Doctor though, smacked me lightly on the arm. "Shush, Leon! And you, Jeff, get a girlfriend."

Mrs. Angelo entered then and Jeff became a bit more panicked.

"Gran."

"What are you doing?" She asked the Doctor.

"The sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's going to be a big old video conference call. All the experts in the world panicking at once. And do you know what they need?" He asked, typing away. "Me. Ah, and here they all are. All the big boys. NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Center, Patrick Moore."

"Ah, I like Patrick Moore." Mrs. Angelo said excitedly, forgetting why she was up there to begin with.

"Ooh, he was a looker when he was younger." I mused out loud, earning a nod from the woman as the Doctor playfully pushed me and spoke to her.

"I'll get you his number. But watch him, he's a devil." He turned to me then. "Not you."

I shrugged. _I said when he was younger._ Jeff though, was worried about other things.

"You can't hack into a call like that!"

"Can't I?" The Doctor grinned, before six live videos popped up on the screen and he flashed some sort of wallet at them.

I couldn't understand a word any of them were saying; the speakers on Jeff's laptop not being the best quality and making it rather hard to pick up the lower tones that I _could_ catch. So I just sat back and listened to the Doctor talk.

"Hello. Yeah, I know you should switch me off but before you do, watch this."

He began muttering though, so I couldn't even hear him and I sighed quietly; feeling left out. _I'm used to it though. Socializing in school was a pain enough, without having people dismiss you because they were too lazy to repeat things or speak in a way I could hear them._ I waited for the Doctor to finish, raising a brow as he spoke to Jeff and ignoring the slight churning of my stomach, before he suddenly got up and rushed out; not even looking back at me. It hurt a bit, and I let out a soft sigh as I pushed myself up off Jeff's bed; only for the Doctor to come back. I felt my spirit's lift, but he spoke to Jeff.

"Oh, and delete your internet history." It was then that he turned to me with a slight frown. "What are you doing? Come on!"

He grabbed my hand and off we went, down the stairs and out to the street, before he caught sight of the runaway firetruck.

"Are you going to—"

"Oh, yes." He grinned, pulling me towards it and shoving me inside as his phone rang and he started up the car. "You take it."

He threw the phone at me, but I held it in disbelief.

"Doctor, I can't."

"Course you can. Just answer it." He said, reaching under the vehicle and messing with some of the wires.

"No. I mean, I _really_ can't."

"Wha—" He stopped upon seeing me and nodded. "Right. Hearing impairment. Sorry. Really."

I shook my head, passing him back the phone as I turned to look out the window and he answered it as he drove. _It's fine. I'm used to it. I'm... used to it._ Yet my chest didn't stop hurting even as he put on the sirens and gave me a grin; that I just glanced at briefly before turning back out the window. _It's not like I can hear them. They're too high pitched._ I snapped out of it though, when I saw that the firetruck was headed right for the side of the hospital.

"Uh, Doctor? I _really_ don't think crashing a firetruck is a good idea." I said, gripping the seat I was in tightly, but he stopped the firetruck feet from the building and gave me an odd look.

"Crash? Who said anything about crashing?" He then grinned. "Now come on, Leon! We've got a ladder to climb."

He hurried out of the truck and began making his way up the ladder as I followed behind, not really minding the view as he climbed on ahead of me, especially since it distracted me from looking down. _Once again, he's not bad._ I mused, climbing in through the window as he hopped down and gave Amy and Rory a hug; whatever he was saying being too quiet for me to hear. At this point though, I honestly didn't care anymore. I was just glad Amy and Rory were alright, but the Doctor spoke up as he faced a woman and two kids; who I assumed were a disguise of the multiform.

"Take the disguise off. They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies."

I couldn't hear a word the alien said, the voice it chose being out of my hearing range, so I just listened to the Doctor.

"Okay. You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again."

I frowned, brows furrowed as I went over his words. _A crack in the universe? Connecting other universes? Or connecting other places in the same universe?_ I shook my head out of my thoughts, turning to Amy.

"You alright?"

She nodded, eyes fixated on the alien, who I turned to just as the Doctor spoke happily.

"And we're off. Look at that. _Look_ at that."

I stared up at the clock just as the alien did, equally confused.

"Yeah, I know, just a clock." He said, rambling a bit, though I was only able to hear a part of it. "...The word is out. And do you know what the word is? The word is zero."

He went on, saying something about spaceships and armies and codes, before holding up his phone.

"The source, by the way, is right here."

A bright light hit the windows and I winced away slightly, not appreciating the attack on my retinas as the Doctor grinned.

"Oh! And I think they just found us."

Sure enough, outside was the large eyeball spaceship, but the multiform hardly seemed worried.

"Yeah, but this is the good bit." The Doctor said with a smirk. "My favorite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here."

Some more of his ramble was lost in translation, but I caught the last bit as he held out his arms with a huge grin.

"Who da man?!"

He turned to us as the multiform, even, gave him a look and I wrinkled my nose.

"Yeah, don't do that."

He begrudgingly gave in to that and I just caught sight of what the alien said now that the light dimmed some and I could sort of read her lips.

"Then I shall take a new form."

"Oh, stop it. You know you can't." The Doctor drawled. "It takes months to form that kind of psychic link."

"And I've had _years_."

She glowed orange and I struggled to figure out what she meant when I noticed Amy start to sway.

"Amy!" I called out, quickly grabbing her and lowering her carefully to the ground as the Doctor rushed over.

"No, Amy?! You've got to hold on. Amy?" He called out, holding her face as I cringed at a pain in my head.

I brought a hand up, catching Rory's attention as my own vision twisted and fogged.

"Leon? Leon!"

I heard a voice then, a familiar one as I caught sight of the multiform, who was blurred slightly. _The multiform… it looks like… me?_

"Oh, this one's rubbish." My own voice said, coming from the multiform's mouth as it smacked the side of its head. "Can't hear a darn thing."

The pain suddenly went away and I sucked in a sharp breath as I blinked and looked up to see the Doctor, giving me this look that just tore at my heartstrings. Rory pat his shoulder then and gestured to the multiform, who had changed form once more. This time, it was the Doctor. Our Doctor sat up and gave it a look.

"Well that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?"

I turned to him with a strange look. "What do you mean, 'who's that supposed to be'? That's _you_."

"Me?" He questioned looked down and then back at Rory and I. "Is that what I look like?"

We both nodded as Rory gave him a confused look.

"You don't know?"

"Busy day." The Doctor said quickly, getting up and moving over towards the multiform. "Why me, though? You're linked with her. Why are you copying me?"

A little girl stepped out then, wearing a bright red coat that nearly matched her flaming red hair and I immediately recognized Amy from the pictures she had of her younger self in her bedroom. The little girl was saying something, but I couldn't see much of her face from past the Doctor's legs and instead turned my attention to Amy.

"Amy. Amy, come on. Don't let this alien thing get in your head."

What I missed, was the multiform disguised as the Doctor flickering into the form of myself for a split second; cluing the Doctor in to what exactly was going on. He immediately rushed over to us, speaking to Amy.

"Amy, don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room. The room in your house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside? I tried to stop you, but you did."

I frowned. "What does the room have to do with—"

"Shush." The Doctor scolded me and I did, feeling a little hurt that I was being ignored, but understanding that Amy's life was at stake here.

"You went into the room." He continued. "You went inside. Amy, dream about what you saw."

I looked up at the multiform then, understanding that Amy had seen the true form of it, and that the Doctor had just tricked the alien into taking its own form, through Amy's memory. Sure enough, the multiform shifted into an eel like creature with _really_ long teeth. It was then that it began to squirm in the beam of the ship outside and the deep voice spoke out once more.

" _Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained."_

And after a moment of the multiform staring at the Doctor—possibly saying something, I wasn't sure—it disappeared and a wind cut through the room as the ship left. The Doctor though, hardly looked pleased and began dialing something on his phone as Rory questioned him.

"The sun. It's back to normal, right? That's… That's good, yeah? That means it's over."

The Doctor pat his head as he walked past and Amy began to stir, but I got up and headed after the Doctor with a frown.

"If it's over, why do you have that look on your face, like it's not?"

"Clever and observant. I like you." He smirked at me, before looking up at the ceiling briefly. "And it's not."

"What do you mean, it's not?" Amy asked as Rory looked at him in disbelief.

"What are you doing?"

"Tracking the signal back. Sorry, in advance."

"About what?" Rory asked as the Doctor put the phone up to his ear.

"The bill." He then began talking loudly into the phone. "Oi, I didn't say you could go! Article fifty seven of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level _five_ planet and you were going to burn it? What? Did you think no-one was watching? You lot, back here, now."

He hung up the phone and tossed it to Rory as I gave him a disbelieving look.

"You didn't."

"I did." He replied as I shook my head.

"No. No, no. You can't have."

"Yup." He said popping the 'p' as Amy spoke.

"Um, what exactly did he do?"

I turned to her with a blank look. "He called them back."

" _What?!_ " Rory exclaimed; the Doctor leaving the room as Amy and I hurried after him.

"Where are you going?" Amy asked.

"The roof. No, hang on." He ducked into another room then, Rory catching up behind us as he began searching through the lockers.

"What's in here?" Amy asked and I gave her a look.

"Clothes. It's a locker room."

"Spot on again, Leon. By golly, you're on a roll." The Doctor chirped, tossing clothes over his shoulder. "I'm saving the world. I need a decent shirt. To hell with the raggedy. Time to put on a show."

Rory, who'd been catching the clothes the Doctor was throwing aside, pulled a shirt off his head as he shouted at the man. "You just summoned aliens back to Earth. Actual aliens. Deadly aliens. Aliens of death. And now you're taking your clothes off. Amy, Leon, he's taking his clothes off."

"Turn your back if it embarrasses you." The Doctor chimed as he began taking off his trousers too; Amy and I giving him appreciative glances.

"Are you stealing clothes now?" Rory said, his confidence wavering with every shirt the Doctor tried on only to take off again. "Those clothes belong to people, you know."

He soon turned his back and then muttered something to Amy, who replied with a 'nope', before turning to me.

"Leon, _please_ tell me _you're_ turning your back?"

I shook my head. "No way. I usually have to pay for shows like this." I held up a hand as the two of them turned to me in shock. "Mels's idea, not mine... Though I can't say I never enjoyed it. I _am_ allowed to appreciate the… _finer_ things in life."

I felt a smirk tug on my lips as the Doctor tried to squirm into some form fitting pants, before he took them off and soon found something more to his tastes. At that point, he had on a cream colored dress shirt, some dark jeans with suspenders, and a number of ties hanging around his neck. Needless to say, I wasn't the only one disappointed when his display ended and the four of us headed up to the roof; where the spaceship hovered rather closely. Swallowing thickly, I suddenly realized that we were literally face to… _eye_ with deadly aliens. Or, as Rory said, aliens of death. _Oh man. I could literally die today, right now, and not even know what it would be like to do something crazy. Like travel the world or something. Let's just hope the Doctor knows what he's doing._ Said Doctor was walking right up to the ship, confident as ever as Amy argued with him.

"So this was a good idea, was it?! They were leaving!"

"Leaving is good. Never coming back is better." The Doctor chirped, making me nod my head at his logic as he called out to the ship above us. "Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now!"

I wanted to make a quip at that, but jolted back a step as the eyeball shot from the ship and right into the Doctor's face. It scanned the Doctor then as he pulled his suspenders up over his shoulders.

" _You, are not of this world._ " It stated, voice deep enough that I could hear it quite clearly.

"No, but I've put a lot of work into it." He then held up one of the ties around his neck. "Hm, oh, I don't know. What do you think?"

" _Is this world important?_ " The ship demanded to know and the Doctor made a face.

"Important? What's that mean, important?" He tossed a tie over at Rory. "Six billion people live here. Is that important? Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" He tossed another over to Amy, who passed it to Rory. "Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"

A hologram of the world formed before us and I watched as wars and temples and bombs and other historical events flickered across it before the ship answered.

" _No._ "

"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?" He asked, messing with another choice for tie as more pictures moved across the image.

" _No._ "

"Okay. One more. Just one. Is this world, protected?"

Images of robots and aliens and other things I'd never seen before went across the image and I swallowed thickly, questioning where I was when these aliens showed up on Earth and silently being glad that wherever I was, I wasn't around.

"Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many." The Doctor went on. "And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?"

Faces of men went across the screen then. Some old, some young, some with dark hair, grey hair, white hair. And then the Doctor walked through the image, making it disappear.

"Hello. I'm the Doctor." He said, a tweed jacket over his shoulders and a red bow-tie around his neck. "Basically… run."

The eyeball quickly went back to the ship and shot out of the sky and back into space. I stared in shock that this one man could make a whole ship just bolt for it at the mention of his name, and suddenly, I was a bit concerned.

"Is that it?" Amy questioned. "Is that thing gone for good? Who were they?"

We turned to ask the Doctor, but he was already gone from the roof.

"Now where in blazes did he go?" Amy asked and I spoke up.

"His ship, perhaps?"

Her eyes widened at that and I mentally smacked myself as I realized what that meant and we all hurried after the Doctor. We made it to the backyard of Amy's home just as the blue ship began to flicker in and out of focus with this wheezing noise that made me wince; wondering what he could have done to make it sound like that. But then it was gone and I felt my heart sink at the realization that he might never come back. Then I wondered how Amy felt, knowing him far longer than the hour I had and as she closed her eyes, I knew she was steeling herself up for the pain his departure had caused and I hesitantly went over and hugged her side.

"You alright?" I asked and she nodded, putting a smile on her face

"Yeah. Course I am. He'll come back. He will."

I nodded, hoping she was right, but knowing better than to get my hopes up, much less encourage someone else to do the same.

* * *

Amy was woken up out of her dream about waiting for the Doctor, by the very same noise she's wished to hear outside her window the past two years. Jumping up and out of bed, she checked the window with a grin upon seeing the blue box waiting in her garden, and raced down the stairs and out the door just as the Doctor came out of his ship.

"Sorry about running off earlier." He said excitedly. "Brand new Tardis. Bit exciting. Just had a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in."

Amy hurried down the steps of her back porch and over to him.

"She's ready for the big stuff now." The Doctor went on, patting the box behind him.

"It's you." Amy breathed. "You came back."

"Course I came back. I always come back. Something wrong with that? Where's that one guy? Leon? Leon, right?"

Amy nodded. "Not here. And you kept the clothes?"

"Well, I just saved the world. The whole planet, for about the millionth time, no charge. Yeah. Shoot me. I kept the clothes."

"Including the bow-tie."

"Yeah, it's cool. Bow-ties are cool." He said, adjusting it. "Leon really isn't here? I rather liked him."

Amy made a face. "Yeah, not here. Are you from another planet?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

"So what do you think?"

"Of what?"

"Other planets. Want to check some out?" He asked quickly.

"What does that mean?"

"It means. Well, it means come with me."

"Where?"

"Wherever you like." He smiled.

"All that stuff that happened. The hospital, the spaceships, Prisoner Zero."

"Oh, don't worry, that's just the beginning. There's loads more."

"Yeah, but those things. Those _amazing_ things, all that stuff..." She marched over to the Doctor angrily then. "That was _two_ years ago."

"Oh. Oops."

"Yeah."

"So that's…"

"Fourteen years!" She snapped.

"Fourteen years since fish custard. Amy Pond, the girl who waited. You've waited long enough."

She eyed him for a second, before turning to the Tardis. "When I was a kid, you said there was a swimming pool and a library, and the swimming pool was _in_ the library."

"Yeah. Not sure where it's got to now. It'll turn up. So, coming?"

"No."

"You wanted to come fourteen years ago."

"I grew up."

"Don't worry. I'll soon fix that."

He snapped his fingers and the Tardis door clicked open, making Amy chuckle in disbelief before heading inside. The Doctor followed after her and closed the door, moving past her to the console as she looked around in shock and amazement, near tears.

"Well? Anything you want to say? Any… passing remarks?" The Doctor asked, bounding over to her knowing that he was dangling the proverbial carrot in front of the hungry horse. "I've heard them all."

He bounded up the stairs to the console once more and Amy finally got some words out.

"I'm in my nighty."

"Don't worry. Plenty of clothes in the wardrobe. _And_ possibly a swimming pool. So!" He grinned up at the ceiling. "All of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will. Where do you want to start?"

Amy bounded up after him. "You are so sure that I'm coming."

"Yeah, I am."

"Why?"

"Cause you're the Scottish girl in the English village, and I know how that feels."

"Oh, do you?"

"All these years living here, most of your life, and you've still got that accent. Yeah, you're coming." He grinned, twisting a few things and ringing a bell as the ship groaned.

"Can you get me back for tomorrow morning?"

"It's a time machine. I can get you back five minutes ago. Why? What's tomorrow?" He asked quickly, but Amy shrugged it off.

"Nothing. Nothing. Just, you know, stuff."

"Alright then. Back in time for stuff." He said, suspiciously, as something dinged and a new sonic screwdriver popped out of the console. "Oh! A new one."

He tried it out with a grin, tossing it to his other hand and tucking it away in his coat.

"Lovely. Thanks dear." He whispered, pressing a few more things, before Amy suddenly turned to him.

"Why me?"

"Why not?"

"No seriously. You are asking me to run away with you in the middle of the night. It's a fair question. Why me?"

"I don't know. Fun. Do I have to have a reason?" The Doctor asked back, pulling levers and such as he did.

"People always have a reason."

"Do I look like people?"

"Yes." She said stiffly and he quickly rattled off his reason as he messed with a phone.

"Been knocking around on my own for a while. My choice, but I've started talking to myself all the time. It's giving me an earache."

"You're lonely. That's it? Just that?"

"Just that. Promise." He said, coming around the console to face her.

"Okay."

The Doctor flicked off a nearby monitor showing a crack, before being sure to double check something.

"And Leon? You said he was gone? Like, _gone_ gone? Like..." The Doctor made a slashing gesture across his throat and Amy made a face.

"What? No! Gone, as in moved out. He left maybe two months after you took off. Said something about starting over? Mels found him a place closer to his work."

The Doctor furrowed his brows. "Work? What does he work as?"

"A tattoo artist."

The Doctor grimaced at the thought, but turned some dials on the console. "Yes, well we can't have that. Let's go pick him up, shall we?"

Amy raised a brow. "Pick him up? You mean we're taking him with us?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Why not? I think he deserves at least one trip for helping out, don't you?"

Amy didn't really agree, having hoped to spend some time with the Doctor on her own, but after what happened between her and Leon after the Doctor ran off a second time, she hoped to possibly make up with him; so she smiled.

"Alright. Let's go."

The Doctor grinned and sent the Tardis off, the two of them hanging on and laughing until the ship came to a stop and they both rushed for the doors. Upon leaving the Tardis though, they found themselves in a crowded city area with laughing drunks passing after leaving some of the bars nearby. Immediately, the Doctor frowned and pulled Amy close to him, not liking the area, and Amy tossed an arm out to a tattoo shop across the way; it's glowing neon sign flashing a light green in the window.

"That's where he works." She told the Doctor who nodded and hurried them across the road, into the shop.

A bell chimed above them and a man with short spiky black hair came out from the back room and took off his blue rubber gloves; his ears, nose, lips, and eyebrows littered with silver rings.

"'ello there! You 'ere for a tattoo or piercing?" The man chirped happily, a flash of silver revealing a ball piercing in the center of his tongue as well.

The Doctor winced. "Ah, neither, actually. We're here for Leon."

"Oh! Friends of 'is then?" The man smiled. "'e'll be right out. 'e's finishing up on a client right now. You sure you don't want something done? I think you'd look great with a nose piercing."

A shiver went down the Doctor's spine as he touched his nose and Amy waved her hands at the man.

"Ah, no thanks. Really."

"Alright." He shrugged, picking up a fedora from off the counter and sashaying towards the back, but not before giving them a wink. "My name's David, by the way. Just shout if ya need me."

Amy gave him a nervous chuckle and waved, before she pulled the Doctor's arm down and speaking in a hushed whisper. "Let's get out of here."

"We _can't_. Not without Leon." He whispered back.

Amy was adamant though. "It's fine. He's mad at me. We had a fight after you left. So let's just _go_."

This only made the Doctor want to bring Leon even more. "You had a _fight_? About what?"

"Nothing!" Amy said, speaking up now as she struggled to try and pull the Doctor towards the door. "It was _nothing_. A stupid fight, is all."

"Oh, it was _stupid_ now, was it?" A voice said from behind them and they both turned to see Leon pulling off his purple rubber gloves and tossing them in a trash bin behind the counter, without looking up.

"L-Leon." Amy muttered as he went on.

"Because last I checked, it was a bit _more_ than just a 'stupid fight'. And I don't appreciate you mocking me, Pond."

Leon finally looked up and the Doctor was surprised to see a heated glare on his face, before he locked eyes with him and the look disappeared into his usual blank expression; though the Doctor could see a bit of surprise in his eyes. He went to say something, but before he could, a rather excited drunk man bounded out of the back room, grinning and showing off his left bicep.

"Amazing! This guy is absolutely… just… brilliant! Thanks mate!"

Leon nodded and waved to the man as he hurried out with a shout about going to drink some more, before Amy spoke.

"Leon, I really didn't mean what I said back then! Really! I was just angry and the pressure of everything just got to be a bit much and I took it out on you! I really am sorry!"

The Doctor expected a rather loud shouting argument to ensue, but surprisingly, Leon just sighed and dragged a hand down his face as he plopped down in a chair behind the counter.

"Do you _know_ how hard it is…" He looked up, the corner of his lip twitching upwards slightly. "...to take you seriously when you're in your _nighty_?"

Amy turned a bright beet red as she looked down at her white nightgown, before looking back up at Leon, furious.

"Y-You jerk!" She then turned to the Doctor and smacked him on the arm. "And you! Why didn't you _tell_ me!"

"I thought you knew!" The Doctor said back, holding his arm and mouthing 'ow' in pain.

Leon let out an indignant snort, the Doctor turning in surprise and managing to catch the small smile that flashed across his face for a split second, before it disappeared and he spoke.

"So? What is it you two wanted?"

Amy made a face. "You're… not mad at me?"

Leon waved a hand nonchalantly. "Nah, I'm good. I was angry then, but I've gotten over it. And you apologized. What more is there to be upset about?"

The Doctor gaped in shock at how easily Leon gave in, but Amy let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness. I actually thought you were still angry with me."

"Oh, I'm always angry with you, Pond." Leon said seriously. "I just know there's better battles to fight than sitting around for years arguing with you. Now, what is it you want? I doubt it's a tattoo or a piercing."

The Doctor smiled, glad that everything worked out relatively easily. "We came to pick you up!"

Leon raised a brow. "Pick me up and take me _where_ exactly?"

"On an adventure!" The Doctor beamed and Leon furrowed his brows in deep thought.

"Adventure? You mean in your ship? To see… aliens?"

"If you want." He smiled. "Anywhere, anywhen! And I promised Amy that once we're finished, I'd get you back by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow..." Leon drummed his fingers on his tattooed bicep, plainly visible below his rolled up sleeves. "Tomorrow is..."

His eyes widened suddenly and he looked over at Amy who look away sheepishly. "You're not..."

Amy groaned, grabbing Leon's arm and pulling him into the back after telling the Doctor to stay put. She pushed Leon against the wall then and pointed a stern finger in his face.

"Tell him _nothing_."

Leon played innocent, though his disapproval was obvious. "Oh, you mean about the fact that you're getting _married_ tomorrow?"

"Sh!" Amy shushed him, looking around to see the Doctor grimacing as he looked at some photos of previous customers. She turned her head back to Leon with a frown. "I just want to have one day where I don't have to worry about marriage or commitment or Rory or anything. Is that so bad?"

"So… you're eloping."

"I'm not eloping!" Amy said, rather loudly and David poked his head out of one of the rooms.

"Ooh!~ Is this some dirt I'm hearing? Leon, I thought you played for the other team?"

"I do." Leon said bluntly. "Hope you're not letting anyone bleed out back there."

"Oops! Almost forgot." David chuckled, ducking back in the room. "Do continue though!"

Amy lowered her voice a bit, before repeating herself. "I'm _not_ eloping."

"Right. Running away with a man you barely know to go on adventures the day before a wedding _isn't_ eloping." Leon drawled out and Amy groaned.

"Really, Leon. It's not like that, okay? I just want to unwind before the big day, is all. He promised to get me back in time, so there's no harm in having a bit of fun."

"Unless he's twelve years late." Leon muttered and Amy swiftly punched him in the stomach; making him double over so she could grab his ear and hiss at him.

"He _won't_ be late. And you will tell him _nothing_. Got it?"

"G-Got it." Leon wheezed out, before Amy let him go.

"Good."

She walked back into the main room with a smug look on her face and Leon rubbed his stomach with a wince before speaking to the Doctor.

"So, um… where did you park?"

"This way!" The Doctor beamed, dashing out the door with Amy as Leon sighed and called out to David in the back.

"I'm heading out, David! And if I'm not back by the day after tomorrow…"

"I get to keep the headphones?" David asked with a chuckle and Leon rolled his eyes as he headed out.

"They're _all_ yours."


	2. Chapter 2

"Whoa..." I breathed out, looking around the interior of the tiny-on-the-outside blue box. "I assumed it was going to be bigger on the inside, but this is just… wow."

The Doctor beamed, rushing around the console in excitement. "Isn't it? Now then." He rushed over to the doors after flipping a lever. "Do either of you know what I keep in here?"

"Uh, the exit?" I said, unsure and still a bit dazed as to what I was seeing.

"No." He smiled and pulled the doors open to let Amy and I see. "Absolutely everything."

Outside the doors was the huge expanse of space with stars littering the sky and a huge cloud of blue off to the right.

"Anything take your fancy?" The Doctor asked as I spoke quietly.

"W-We're in space."

"Yeah. That's space."

"But it can't be." Amy said back, turning to him as I stuck a hand out, expecting to feel cold or something; _anything_ to prove that what I was seeing was real.

"But it is."

"But it's like, it's like, it's like special effects." Amy countered, obviously going through the same trouble I was.

 _There's no_ way _this is real. I mean, aliens and crazy guys in bow-ties saving the world, I can somehow wrap my head around. But_ this _? A ship that can travel in time and space. That's just… That is just…_

"Brilliant." I breathed out.

"What's that, Leon?"

I turned around. "That's space. _Actual_ space. And that is bloody _fantastic_."

The Doctor beamed as I grabbed onto the door frame and leaned out, looking around and somehow knowing that this wasn't special effects. There was just this feeling you get when you look out at something like that. Some feeling that you'd only understand if you were there, staring out at something vast and empty and amazing. Amy though, wasn't convinced.

"It's got to be like special effects."

"Like what?" The Doctor asked as she rounded on him once more.

"It is though, isn't it? It's not real."

The Doctor smiled a bit. "Get out."

"What?"

"No, seriously. Get out!" He shoved Amy out the door and I just about had a heart attack, until he grabbed her ankle and she started to float.

The Doctor held her out there for a while, chuckling, before he started to pull her back in.

"Come on, Pond." He set her back down on the floor and held her to make sure she wouldn't tumble out. " _Now_ do you believe me?"

Amy laughed, before pulling away slightly. "Okay. Your box is a spaceship. It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space! Whoo!" She shouted outside with a laugh as I leaned forward to look past her and at the Doctor.

"How can we breathe? Shouldn't we be pulled out because of the lack of… everything?"

"I've extended the air shell. We're fine." He said, before suddenly crouching down and looking at something below us.

Amy ducked down as well and I was forced to lean over them to try and see and what I saw, made my mouth drop open in shock, though my stomach churned dizzily at the height.

"Now that's interesting." The Doctor said as I spoke up.

"Is that another ship?"

"Correct!" He said, rushing back to the console as Amy got up.

She stumbled though and grabbed onto me, knocking me off balance and pushing me out the doors. I scrambled to grab a hold of something and barely managed to grab the top of the box as the door closed.

"Amy! Doctor! Help would be nice!"

I heard Amy calling out to the Doctor, but only slightly. My hearing aid could only do so much, after all. And as I waited for the Doctor or someone to pull me back in, I focused on calming myself down as my heart leapt into my throat and my breathing quickened as I closed my eyes. _It's alright. You're fine. Y-You're totally not about to fly off into space nor are you possibly hundreds of millions of feet in the air. Who cares if you're afraid of heights? Sure, the view is pretty cool, b-but I'd_ really _like to get back on solid ground._

"A-Any day now!" I called out, voice tight until I heard the creaking of the door open and I looked down at the Doctor, who hardly looked bothered.

"Well, come on. I found us a spaceship." He smiled, reaching out and pulling me back in, to which I immediately shoved off him and shut the doors; holding them closed as I tried to calm my suddenly rapid breathing. "Are you alright?"

"Just… give me a minute." I said and Amy explained behind me.

"Ooh, yeah. Forgot about that. Leon's not good with heights."

"Not good?" I muttered, turning back to her. "Try _terrified_."

Already I could feel my legs shaking and my chest getting tight with anxiety, so I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead against the closed doors, taking a deep breath and letting it out; continuing to do this a few times to calm myself down. The Doctor though, had other ideas and pulled me over towards the railing where a window was in view, showing us the spaceship from outside.

"I know what'll help! A distraction!" He grinned, gesturing to the window. " _This_ is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland. All of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal. That's not just a ship, that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping. Searching the stars for a new home."

"Can we go out and see?" Amy asked, eager as always, though I was a bit hesitant.

"Hold on a minute, aren't we breaking some sort of law by just popping up on their ship? We could be arrested the moment we stepped off."

"Oh, well aren't you a negative Nancy." The Doctor whined, making me frown a bit as he turned to Amy. "Course we can. But first, there's a thing."

"A thing?" She questioned.

"An important thing. In fact, Thing One. We are observers only." He said, holding a magnifying glass up to his face once he'd moved over to the console. "That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets."

I eyed him, his words not making sense after what happened two years ago. "Are you sure? You _did_ get rather involved with the Prisoner Zero thing."

He ignored me upon spotting something on the screen. "Ooh, that's interesting."

"So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah? Because if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it, they've got to keep filming and let it die." Amy tried to simplify, though her words sort of hurt and I turned to the screen showing the crying little girl with a frown. "It's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that. Don't you find that hard, being all, like, detached and cold?" She turned, confused. "Doctor?"

I turned as well, seeing him gone and furrowed my brows before I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to the monitor once more; seeing said Doctor outside and waving for us to come out.

"Amy, the Doctor's outside."

She rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Why does it feel like that won't be the first time he'll do that?"

I scoffed. "Probably because it won't be."

She chuckled and I felt myself smile a bit, until the moment we walked out of the Tardis. I was once again stunned by everything as Amy and I found ourselves standing in the very spaceship we were looking at only moments ago. Not only that, but we were smack dab in the middle of a market area where people of all shapes and sizes were walking around or biking to get to where they needed to be.

"We're in the future. Like hundreds of years in the future." Amy breathed out as she approached the Doctor and I looked around in awe; not even remotely bothered by all the noise like I usually would be. "We've been dead for centuries."

I stopped at that, giving Amy a look. "Really? You just had to go and ruin a very nice picture with that, didn't you?"

The Doctor agreed with me, getting in her face and pulling her along. "You're a cheery one. Never mind dead, look at this place! Isn't it wrong?"

I furrowed my brows as I followed after the two of them, not really understanding a few things. _Wrong? There's something wrong here? And if there is, why is he smiling like that?_ An image of a grinning Mels as she ran from police entered my mind and a shiver wracked my spine. _Ooh, two peas in a pod, I think. Freakin' adrenaline junkies._

"What's wrong?" Amy asked as the Doctor continued to push her.

"Come on, use your eyes. You too, Leon. Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?"

The two of us looked around and I noticed a few things, but Amy cut me off before I could say a word.

"Is it the bicycles? Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles."

"Says the girl in the nightie." The Doctor and I both said simultaneously, and he turned to me with a grin as Amy freaked out once more.

 _Don't know why she didn't change. She had a chance to and I'm sure the Doctor would have pointed out someplace to get clothes on the Tardis._ I wrinkled my nose. _Still not used to saying that. Makes me think this is all some dream or something, but it's far too vivid to be a dream._ I continued to search for what the Doctor said was wrong and my eyes landed upon some odd looking puppets in booths that were littered around the ship. _Odd._ The Doctor spoke though and I turned my attention to him.

"Now, come on. Look around you. _Actually_ look. Life on a giant starship... Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear... on the _brink_ of collapse. A police state. Excuse me."

I frowned, tapping my hearing aid, because it seemed as though I was still managing to miss out on what he was saying. As I tapped on it though, I winced, hearing something interfering with the sound I was receiving. It wasn't the usual interference though. No high pitched whining or screeching noise, and it wasn't as though it wasn't picking up what he was saying because of the other noises around us. But there was one sound that was under everything else. _Some sort of screaming. Like an unworldly screeching sound._ I felt my chest ache as I started to listen to it, something about the noise upsetting me, but the Doctor rushed past me and bumped my arm with an apology as he borrowed a man's glass of water and set it on the floor. I blinked, confused by his actions as I watched the cup of water with him, forgetting about the noise my hearing aid picked up.

"Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish. Where was I?" He asked, turning back to us but Amy stopped him.

"Why did you just do that with the water?"

"And seriously?" I raised a brow at him. "An escaped fish?"

He frowned, pouting at me as he bopped me on the nose with his finger. "Because." He turned back to Amy then as I wrinkled my nose in annoyance. "And I don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state. Do you see it yet?"

"Where?" Amy asked and the Doctor snapped his finger and pointed out a little girl sitting on a red bench.

"There."

I slowly felt myself frown sadly, blinking only for the little girl to change to a young boy with short blonde hair crying alone in a park with bruises on his arms and legs. When I blinked again though, the Doctor had grabbed my arm and pulled me to a bench not far away from the girl where Amy was already sitting.

"Come on, Leon. Don't space out now."

"R-Right. Sorry."

He stopped once we reached the bench, eyeing me as I mentally cursed myself for stuttering and sat beside Amy; making it so the Doctor had to sit on her other side.

"One little girl crying. So?" Amy questioned, not sounding like there was anything wrong, though I kept my eyes on the girl sadly.

"Crying silently. I mean, children cry because they want attention, because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that." The Doctor replied and I grit my teeth.

 _Yeah, any parent except one._ I mentally shook the thought from my head and leaned back on the bench, folding my arms across my chest and looking anywhere _but_ at the girl now. She was dredging up things I'd rather forget.

"Are you a parent?"

 _That_ caught my attention though, and I glanced at the Doctor from the corner of my eye to see what he'd say. He ignored the question, of course.

"Hundreds of parents walking past who spot her and not one of them is asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's _something_ they're afraid of. Shadows, whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen, which _means_ it's everywhere. Police state."

I looked back at the bench, but the girl was gone and Amy leaned forward in her seat as I winced and fiddled with my hearing aid. The noise of the crowd was growing and along with it, that screaming undertone. I missed part of the Doctor's conversation with Amy while adjusting the volume, only seeing him hand her something before catching the tail end of their conversation.

"It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose?" The Doctor asked her and Amy, frustrated, turned back to face forward as the Doctor chuckled. "Gotcha. Meet me back here in half an hour."

"And what are you gonna do?" Amy questioned him in a mocking tone.

"What I always do." The Doctor answered, mocking her in return as he stood. "Stay out of trouble… badly." He turned to me then and pointed with both hands. " _You_ are coming with me. I've got some things to ask you and I'm curious to see how clever you really are."

I sighed, but begrudgingly stood and walked around the bench, as opposed to his jumping over the back. We walked a few feet away before Amy called out from where we had been.

"So, is this how it works, Doctor? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?"

"Yes."

The two exchanged grins and then we headed our separate ways; the Doctor staying quiet for a while before finally asking the questions he was eager to ask me.

"So! What was it about that little girl that upset you, eh?"

I pointedly stared straight ahead and didn't make eye contact as we headed to another area that didn't exactly look like a safe every-day sort of pathway. _More like an employees' only route._

"What was it about Amy's question about parenthood upset _you_?" I asked back, internally wincing at the bluntness, but knowing that he was doing something similar and deserved it.

"Touché." He replied with his own cringe. "Right. One of those 'I should get to know you better before asking personal questions' things."

"Hm." I hummed.

 _Though he_ did _say he was over 900 years old. It's stupid to think he_ wasn't _a parent at some point. Something obviously happened to upset him about it and I don't exactly see a wife and kids bouncing around his ship._ I mused, but I pushed the thought aside. Digging into his life wasn't something I really wanted to do when he was being polite enough to stay out of mine, for the most part.

"Alright then, time to test your cleverness." He chirped, his pleasant demeanor returning as we climbed down a ladder into the underbelly of the pathway. "Have you figured out what's wrong?"

I raised a brow. "You mean your… missing fish?"

"No, no, no. The reason I made _up_ the missing fish."

I frowned, thinking back to when the Doctor took the water glass from the man and placed it on the floor. There wasn't anything coming to mind though. It was just water sitting in a glass. _And not rippling. We're on a ship._ I looked around then, eyebrows furrowed. _In the underbelly of the ship where the engines or mechanics should be. But that water was completely still. Even the Tardis vibrated._ I placed a hand on the wall and my frown deepened.

"There's no vibrations."

"Exactly." He grinned, before ducking down to inspect a single glass of water on the ground, just as another voice spoke up; startling him, though I only jumped when he bounced up from the floor and drew my attention to the figure before us.

"You know me?" The Doctor questioned the cloaked figure in a white porcelain mask; who I suspected was female, despite the disguise.

She spoke in whispers too low for me to hear though, so I frowned at the missing half of the conversation and even more when the Doctor lowered his voice. He only began to speak up when he brushed past me to a breaker's box where some loose pipes were.

"It doesn't make sense. These power couplings, they're not connected. Look. Look, they're dummies, see?" He then bounded to the opposite wall and rapped on it with his knuckles. "And behind this wall, nothing. It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was no engine at all."

He looked at the woman in stunned shock, whereas I looked between them in a bit of annoyance at missing out what was happening. She was suspicious, after all, showing up out of nowhere. And without knowing what they were talking about, how was I supposed to know if she was friend or foe? The last alien I saw wasn't exactly pleasant and despite her human-like appearance, I wasn't quite so easy to convince about her alliance with us. For all I knew, she was another shapeshifter like whatever attacked Leadworth two years ago. Judging by the Doctor's reaction, he wasn't too certain either as he confronted her about the ship which was magically flying without an engine. She then passed him something and began to walk away.

"Who are you? How do we find you again?" The Doctor asked and I took that as meaning that she was apparently a friend in whatever knightly quest we were partaking of.

The lights flickered then and the ship rumbled underneath my feet for a moment as I look around in confusion before they fixed themselves and I took that chance to ask the Doctor some questions about what was going on.

"Doctor? Who was she? What did she give you?"

"Apparently, she's Liz 10. Whatever that means and _this_." He held up the device. "Is apparently going to help us find Amy, who _may_ be in a bit of trouble if we need something to find her."

I frowned at him, more than annoyed. "You're telling me I should have gone with her?"

He winced. "Yes, well, possibly. Though with your curiosity, you probably would have ended up in the _same_ trouble."

"Sorry for being curious." I hummed, tossing an arm out. "Lead the way."

It didn't take long for us to find her and the little girl from before, who made me hesitate slightly, before ignoring her. I was never good with kids anyway. I wasn't close though and couldn't hear what the Doctor was confronting Amy about until he entered the room she was in and I was able to head in with him as he scanned something on the ceiling.

"Yeah, your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about twenty minutes."

"But why would I choose to forget?"

I blinked, confused. It seems that Doctor standing in the doorway had prevented me from hearing the conversation they'd just had on what Amy was doing… again. _I'm really starting to hate being deaf. There's too many important things I'm missing out on and, if I'm not careful, they might get annoyed with me asking._ I swallowed thickly, remembering some friends from high school who'd done the same; telling me time and time again that 'it was nothing' when they became too lazy and annoyed to repeat what I'd missed. _And who's to say they won't leave me. I'm not cut out for this kind of thing, as much as I'd like to be. My disability makes me a liability. What am I going to do when things start to get dicey? Like with the shape-shifter._

"Leon? Are you even listening?"

I flinched, turning to Amy who was giving me a strange look.

"Uh, yeah, no. Sorry. My aid's been a bit… off." I said apologetically, tapping the hearing aid in my ear for emphasis, though that wasn't entirely true.

"What's it doin'?" She asked curiously.

"The usual. Too much input with the crowds. His, uh, sonic thing bothers it a bit, and there's some kind of background interference."

She smirked. "You getting alien messages on that thing?"

I scoffed. "Please, Amy. Not in front of the dork."

"Oi!" The Doctor complained "I'm not a dork."

"Says the man rattling on about aliens every ten seconds." I muttered, making Amy chuckle and him roll his eyes.

"Yes, fine. Alright. Now get over here and hold tight." He said, rocking back and forth on his heels as he looked over the monitors in front of him. "We're bringing down the government."

He slammed a hand down on the 'protest' button before him and the door shut behind us as we pressed ourselves into a corner at the sight of the floor opening up and the face-changing man in the booth in front of us. I immediately paled at the sight of the drop, feeling my legs already start to go weak as the spoke.

"Say wee!"

"Ah!" Amy yelled instead as we fell and everything went black for me the moment my stomach lurched up into my throat and we were freefalling.

* * *

"—on. Leon. Leon!"

I slowly opened my eyes, grimacing at the smell of whatever was around us and groaning as I rolled onto my side in the slop.

"Ah, there you are. Was wondering when you'd wake up. Hit your head on the way down or something?"

I frowned at the Doctor. "I'm _terrified_ of heights and last I checked, that was a long way down."

He winced. "Right. Sorry."

He reached down and helped me onto my feet as I scowled at the slime I was covered in and attempted to wipe some of it off.

"Do I want to know where we are or what we're standing in?"

"Right. You were unconscious for that bit. We're in the heart of the ship."

"It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!" Amy corrected him, tossing a bit of the slop away.

"Yes, but only food refuse." The Doctor replied, kneeling and smelling some of the goop; which I grimaced in disgust at. "Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the shop."

I stopped at those words, hoping I hadn't heard them right. "Food refuse? Feeder tubes? Doctor, could we be…"

He pulled a hand through his hair. "Possibly."

"The floor's all squidgy. Like a water bed." Amy said, not paying attention to us. "It's sort of rubbery. Feel it. Wet and slimy."

There was a noise then and I cringed; the noise having ran through my hearing aid like a shout in my ear.

"Uh, it's not a floor." The Doctor said, struggling with the words as he and Amy stood up from the goop. "It's a…"

"It's a what?"

"The next word is kind of a scary word." The Doctor rattled on, taking Amy's hands in his. "You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go omm."

"It's a tongue." I blurted out, making the Doctor turn to me.

"I wanted to tell her gently!"

"Yeah, well, while you two are meditating, you could be trying to think up a way for us to get out of here without being _eaten_."

"This is a mouth." Amy said, stunned as she looked around. "This whole place, is a mouth. We're in a mouth?!"

"Yes, yes, yes." The Doctor said with a smile, though the timing was hardly appropriate. "But on the plus side, roomy."

"How do we get out?!" She asked, attempting to keep him on task.

"How big is this beastie? It's gorgeous. Blimey, if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach." The Doctor rattled on, looking around, only to pause as the creature made another noise; sending my hand up to my head in pain. "Though not right now."

"Doctor, _how_ do we get out?" Amy demanded.

"Okay, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance is…" He shined his sonic towards where the mouth would be, but trailed off. "…closed for business."

"We could try though." Amy said, moving forward only for the ground the shake before the Doctor could stop her.

"Too late. It's started."

"What has?" Amy questioned and as the creature groaned, I let out a shout of pain and nearly tore my ear off attempting to get my hearing aid out and pocketed as the three of us fell.

Problem was, the sound seemed to reverberate through me at a pitch that I could just hear even without the hearing aid. It was so sad, yet I couldn't bring myself to hear much more with my ears ringing, so being hit by a ton of vomit was less than expected. And I'd never tasted something so foul. I grimaced, wishing I could wipe my mouth or drown in mouthwash, but being unable to. Worse part was, that ringing was still there and my head was killing me. I forced myself to sit up, cradling my head with a quiet groan and wishing the noise would stop. I wanted to hear. Something. _Anything_. I was _mostly_ deaf, not completely, and I honestly hoped that I hadn't just lost all of my hearing with whatever creature we were in screaming loud enough for my eardrums to finally give up. My throat tightened at the thought and I forced myself to calm down. I couldn't let them know. I couldn't let Amy and the Doctor know. If they knew, then that would be it. They would leave me. Kick me out like my school did. Stare at me with those pitying looks like my supposed friends did. I _couldn't_ let them know.

I forced myself to stand on shaky legs, looking around at the dark tunnel we were in cautiously just as the lights turned on and illuminated a couple of those strange booth puppets. The Doctor and Amy walked towards them, saying something that made the puppets changed faces into a more terrifying one. I got the impression the Doctor was mocking them, but never expected the booths to open up and allow the puppets to _walk_. The Doctor, Amy, and I all took a step back, but someone lightly pushed me aside and stormed past, shooting the approaching mannequins. The cloak she was wearing was familiar, but I was struggling to focus on lip-reading; my top priority at the moment.

"You must be Amy. Liz. Liz Ten." She introduced herself to Amy, shaking her hand and making a disgusted face. "Shame about the sick."

She walked past me then and placed a hand on the shoulder of that little girl we'd seen earlier, saying something about the girl being brave. She tossed something to the Doctor and I couldn't quite get a read on what she said after that. The lights weren't exactly the best and I anxiously chewed my lip, wishing that my hearing—what was left of it, anyway—would quickly return. Not only was I feeling depressed and left out, but not knowing what was going on in a dangerous situation like this was more than a little disconcerting.

The Doctor tugged me along then, myself being a bit late on the whole 'looking behind to see the puppets moving', and off we went down another area of the ship. I was abruptly yanked down partway through whatever conversation they were having as we walked—unable to see anyone's mouths to read—flinching as the Doctor turned to me with furrowed brows.

"You alright, Leon?" I read off his lips and nodded, reluctantly tugging my hand from his.

He eyed me suspiciously and I gave him a small nervous smile to reassure him of my lie, and he nodded before leading the way down to yet another hallway. He stopped though, turning to the barred opening in the wall where long scorpion-esque tentacles slammed against the bars. I cringed as that sound went through my mind again; somehow still being heard by me and making my head ache. It was so sad though. I couldn't help but stay put with the Doctor for a while as Liz and Mandy moved on.

"I-It's so sad." I said, unable to tell that I'd spoken out loud until the Doctor turned round and looked at me in shock.

"You can hear it?" I read from his lips, wincing at my mistake, but Amy had doubled back and looked at us in worry.

He said something to her, his face turned too far away from me for me to read, before he grabbed my hand with a frown and tugged me along after him. We soon ended up in Liz's room, glasses on the floor and the Doctor speaking with her before tossing me the mask she'd been wearing earlier. I studied it, but had no idea what he wanted me to conclude from it, and without my hearing I just shrugged at him. He frowned again and I turned away, not wanting to see his disappointment. So I turned my attention back to the mask. _Some kind of porcelain. No strings or anything. Miracle it stays on, but it's old._ Really _old. Like an antique, but if it's hers… why's she look so young? Future tech? Then why's the Doctor so interested in her mask? Something must be wrong. But what? Damn my hearing._ I grit my teeth and forced myself to set the mask down in fear I'd break it in my frustration, but then I saw some people walk in and I stiffened in concern.

The Queen— _Liz Ten, bit obvious, even to a deaf person_ —seemed to recognize them and wasn't too happy about them showing up, but when the head of the man in front of the Doctor turned around to reveal another one of those puppet faces, I was a little concerned. We followed them though, being led down some stairs to a basement area that more resembled a dungeon than anything. The sound down here was louder and I grimaced, rubbing my ears as Amy and Mandy peered down a hole where more tentacles were. Children walked by then and I frowned in confusion, moving past them to where a large laser-type object was shooting bolts down into a hole. What I saw, made me feel sick to my stomach as I understood then, what was happening.

"T-The engine." I stuttered out, catching the Doctor's attention as he stopped arguing with Liz and I looked at him. "T-The creature's the engine."

He nodded, eyes furious as he turned back and shouted at them some more. He then went over to the grate where the tentacles were, pulling it off and allowing a few to come out, aiming his sonic at it before that noise echoed out, louder than ever. My head was ringing and I quickly sank to the ground, covering my ears in vain before the sound stopped and I felt my world go black once more.

* * *

"Leon! Doctor, something's wrong with Leon!" Amy called out, making the Doctor stop the amplification of the creature's cries of pain before rushing over to where Leon had collapsed on the ground.

"Oh, I'm stupid. So _stupid_!" The Doctor snapped, rolling Leon onto his back and grimacing as he scanned him with his sonic; blood coming from his ears.

"Doctor, what's wrong with him?" Amy asked in worry.

"He could hear it. Even before I amplified the creature's screams, he could hear it." He said quickly. "I should have done something before amplifying it. Muted it for him or something, because I may have just permanently made him deaf. _Completely_ deaf."

The Doctor checked his sonic and scowled, moving Leon out of the way and leaning him up against a wall nearby.

"Will he be alright? What did your sonic say?"

"I won't know until he's awake." He murmured, giving Leon's prone form an apologetic look.

"Who did this?" Liz snapped at Hawthorne then, angry at what was being supposedly hidden from her and igniting the Doctor's frustration once more.

"We act on instructions from the highest authority.

" _I_ am the highest authority. The creature will be released, now." She said, but nobody moved. "I said now! Is anyone listening to me?"

"Liz. Your mask." The Doctor spoke up.

"What about my mask?"

He tossed it to her. "Look at it. It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say."

"Yeah? It's an antique. So?"

"Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over two hundred years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign." He explained as she struggled with the denial

"Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years."

"Ten years. And the same ten years, over and over again, always leading you here." The Doctor said with a snap of his fingers, showing her two more buttons.

'Forget' and 'Abdicate'.

"What have you done?" Liz asked Hawthorne once more.

"Only what you have ordered. We work for you, ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us."

The screen in front of the buttons turned on, showing Liz her own face as a past self explained the situation. The Doctor stepped away though, moving over to Leon as he listened, patting the young man's face lightly to try and rouse him as the video came to a close.

"I voted for this." Amy breathed out in shock. "Why would I do that?"

"Because you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice." The Doctor said in frustration. "Humanity or alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong. You don't ever decide what I need to know."

"I don't even remember doing it."

"You did it. That's what counts." He snapped.

"I'm… I'm sorry." Amy said, about the only thing she could offer.

"Oh, I don't care. When I'm done here, you're going home. You and Leon both." He growled, softening slightly upon mentioning Leon. "I've hurt him enough."

"Why?" Amy demanded. "Because I made a mistake? _One_ mistake? I don't even remember doing it! Doctor!"

"Yeah, I know. You're only human." He said, like it was an excuse he'd heard far too often for it to matter.

"What are you doing?" Liz asked him, seeing that he was messing with the controls.

"The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it."

"That'll be like killing it." Amy muttered, making the Doctor angry.

"Look, three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor anymore."

"There must be something we can do. Some other way." Liz tried, but he'd had enough.

"Nobody talk to me. Nobody _human_ has anything to say to me today!" He shouted, finally losing his temper.

Amy went to go sit over by Leon and the rest sat back and waited for the inevitable, wishing there was something, _anything_ they could do to save the creature the Doctor would end up having to kill.

* * *

I had a dream. It was… odd. I was young. Oh, so young. I saw my father walk out the door, backhanding my mother and shouting about how I looked like _him_. Like the man she'd loved before him, my _true_ father. I remembered her neglect, dreamt of being bedridden with a dangerously higher fever. Coughing, hacking, begging for water, then waking up one day with everything muted. Having to go to the doctor's on my own years later because my mother was drunk; discovering my partial deafness. It hadn't been too bad. I could hear, but everything sounded slightly muffled. I remembered going to college, collapsing, finding out my hearing had gotten worse. I'd tried to hide it, but it soon became apparent that people could tell. I was kicked out for my disability. I lost friends because of my deafness. I forgot what the wind sounded like, the sound of rushing water, peoples' voices, their laughter. I remember getting into a fight with my mother, being hit, attacked, beaten, thrown out.

And I ran. Morphing back into a child, I ran and ran, crying the whole way. Knocking on door after door, begging for help. Then I reached a familiar home. Amy's home. I went to knock, but stopped. _I can't lose them too._ I thought, walking away only for a voice to break through the static of the rain.

"What do you think you're doing, you idiot?! Get in here!"

And then I was sitting on a bench. I was alone. I was crying. I wasn't more than six. It wasn't a memory. Just a dream. I knew it was a dream because I was in the Starship UK. People were walking right past me. I went unnoticed, until someone sat beside me.

"Hello. Why are you crying?"

I shook my head, not wanting to respond.

"Did someone hurt you?"

I hesitated, because in a way, they did. Everyone hurt me when they left.

"I see." He hummed, before speaking again. "You know, I'm the last of my kind. The last of the Time Lords. Can you believe that?"

I remained silent, though I stopped crying.

"And every day I look out into the world and I see humans. Wonderful beings, humans. Clever, innovative, all that. And I fell in love with them. Humans, that is. But there's bad humans too. Just like there's bad Time Lords. And I try to make things right. I try to help. And when I see a child sitting all alone, the first thing I do is help. I'll worry about the consequences later. Because in that moment, all I can see is someone innocent—so innocent and so young—in pain. And all my hearts cry out for me to help them. And I want to help you too, if you'll let me." He said, getting up and kneeling in front of me with a hand held out, and I hesitantly looked up into the green eyes of the Doctor. "So, Leon Travinsky, will you give me that chance to help you?"

* * *

I wearily blinked open my eyes, heart racing in a panic for some reason.

"L-Leon! Leon, you're alright!" Amy said, making me wince, though joy filled me in that moment.

 _I can still hear…_ "Amy, what's going on?"

She winced then, making me frown as I brought a hand to my head and closed my eyes against the nausea that welled up in me from sitting up.

"The Doctor, he… He found out that the Star whale is being tortured to pilot the ship and he's… he's going to m-make it a vegetable so it won't have to feel it anymore."

I frowned, the action not seeming like the Doctor, though I didn't know him that well. I flinched when Mandy ran off then, meeting up with someone and a tentacle nuzzling up against her and suddenly, my dream came to mind.

" _The last of the Time Lords…"_

" _And when I see a child sitting all alone, the first thing I do is help. I'll worry about the consequences later."_

"It's trying to save the children." I breathed out, making Amy blink.

"What?"

I repeated myself as I stood, gritting my teeth against the tilt of my vision and moving quickly towards Liz Ten. "It's trying to help the children."

Her eyes widened in understanding as I grabbed Liz Ten and quickly apologized.

"Sorry. I need to borrow you."

"What?"

The Doctor spotted me then and quickly panicked. "Leon! Leon, no!"

Amy held him back though as I slammed her hand down on the 'abdicate' button and the Star whale let out a cry that made my knees weak and my head ring.

The shaking ship steadied then though and the Doctor broke free angrily.

"Leon, what have you done?"

"Nothing." I breathed out, frowning at him as Amy explained while helping me to my feet.

"He's right, Doctor. Isn't he?"

Hawthorne stared in shock at the screens. "We've increased speed."

"Yeah, well you've stopped torturing the pilot. Got to help." Amy scoffed.

"It's still here." Liz breathed out. "I don't understand."

"The Star whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you." Amy told them as they stared in surprise and I spoke up; now steady on my feet.

"The last of its kind." I said, looking directly at the Doctor. "Old and lonely and kind. Nothing left for it other than to travel the stars. And then it heard the cries of children."

Amy nodded. "What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."

The Doctor looked down, almost shamefully and I sighed, rubbing at my aching head.

"Do you guys have someplace I can get fresh air? My head's killing me."

Liz nodded slowly, still looking down at the creature they'd been torturing. "There's an observation deck just outside."

I left without a word, making it out and soon tumbling back down to my knees. I couldn't help but be glad my hearing—what was left of it—was back, but having completely lost it for just that moment was a bit more than I could handle and I let out a shaky breath, closing my eyes to hold back the tears. I moved so my back was up against the glass of the observation deck and tried to relax, but even now I was straining to hear every little thing I could; which wasn't much. I could still hear the Star whale, though the sound was much lighter than before and didn't cause me pain. Other than that though, there was nothing. I even put in my hearing aid and that didn't help. And suddenly, I felt very lonely. I was living in a different world from people like Amy and the Doctor. They couldn't understand me and I couldn't understand them. That's just the way it was. And right now I was feeling that more than anyone, because I could only take half a step into their world. I could only hear the silent cries of the Star whale. I couldn't hear the crowds down below, the gentle hum of the oxygen being pumped into the buildings, the light music that was undoubtedly playing from somewhere in the crowded marketplace. Everything was silent. All of it.

"Hello."

I snapped my eyes open, the familiar voice reminding me of the dream I had as the Doctor approached with a small smile.

"How's your hearing?" He asked and I started to push myself up from off the ground, but he shook his hands. "No, no. It's fine. No need to get up. I just came out here to check on you and get a look outside."

I hesitated, but slumped back down, closing my eyes with a quiet sigh once more. "My hearing is back to how it was. Mostly useless."

He went quiet for a moment, looking out at the sky. "I'm sorry, for putting you through that. It was stupid of me to not have realized the amount of pain and damage it could have—and _did_ —cause you."

"It's fine. It doesn't matter." I muttered, but he turned around angrily.

"Doesn't matter? Leon, you could have been _completely deaf_!"

That made me angry. _Very_ angry.

"I'm _going_ to be completely deaf!" I shouted back, standing up and ignoring the pounding that movement sent through my head. "It's inevitable! I'm going to lose all hearing in both ears no matter what, so why the _hell_ does it matter if it happens sooner?!"

He looked at me in shock at my outburst and as I calmed my breathing, I forced myself to shove away my temper as I turned.

"Forget it. You wouldn't understand." I said sharply, bringing a hand to my head. "I'll meet you both back at your ship."

"L-Leon. Leon, wait!" He called out, but I ignored him and hurried off; needing some time alone.

Needing some time to think about what was best.

* * *

Amy bounded towards the Doctor as he stared out over the stars out of the observation deck, handing him Liz's porcelain mask.

"From Her Majesty. She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK." She smiled, before seeing the expression on the Doctor's face and realizing that someone was missing. "Where's Leon?"

"Back on the Tardis."

She furrowed her brows. "Why? Is he alright?"

"No, _no_. Oh, I don't know." He said, dragging a hand down his face. "I was just asking him how his hearing was, that's all. Apologizing for the whole sound amplification thing and he said it didn't matter. Amy, he didn't _care_ that he could have been permanently deaf! And then…" He sighed heavily. "And then he got angry. _Proper_ angry. Shouting that it would be inevitable, so what did it matter? Why, Amy? Why is he so convinced that something like this is unimportant? That being able to hear, even as little as he can, is unimportant?"

"I don't think he is." Amy muttered softly and the Doctor turned to her in confusion.

"What?"

"Sorry, it's just… Well, before you picked us up, remember how I said Leon and I had a fight? It was a bit more than that, actually. You've seen him! He's all stoic and doesn't express himself… but this time, he got angry. Like you said. A real, proper angry. It was the first time he'd ever raised his voice. To me, to anyone, as far as I know. And we were fighting over his hearing. I was trying to convince him to try schooling again. How Rory and I would help him pay for a better hearing aid, and he was calm at first. Just saying no. But then I… I lost my patience and asked him what his deal was. Why didn't he want to go back or even try and he said… he said I didn't understand. That we lived in a different world than him. And then he moved out."

She went quiet for a minute or two before continuing.

"I talked with Rory about it later, frustrated about the whole thing, but he said something that made me feel a bit guilty. He wondered if perhaps… Leon was lying. If he was actually scared of the worse happening and his lashing out and distancing himself, was his way of coping. Keeping himself from being hurt and hurting others. I sort of blew him off at the time, but the more I thought about it, the more that sort of made sense. So I think… maybe, that he's really afraid of losing his hearing completely. Terrified. But he's trying to play it off as if he doesn't care because if he doesn't care then… maybe we won't either?" She ran a hand through her hair. "I-I'm not really sure where I was going with that."

"No, I… I think I get it." The Doctor said, looking back out over the stars. "I just wish we could help. It must be hard, dealing with a disability like that."

Amy nodded, moving up beside the Doctor to look out as well. "He told me once, after he'd gotten drunk with a friend of ours, that he was lonely. That not being able to hear was like being trapped on a desert island where every time you tried to call for help, the ship just turned around and sailed away."

"Bit dark, that."

Amy chuckled. "That's what I said, but… It's hard to imagine, don't you think?"

"Probably what he meant by 'living in a different world'. You can't imagine what it's like because you've never been in that situation." The Doctor mused.

"I think he's glad though. That you took him along."

The Doctor raised a brow at that and Amy playfully smacked his arm.

"Don't give me that. He's smiled more with you around than I've ever seen."

"Well…" The Doctor stood straighter, adjusting his bowtie proudly. "I'm the Doctor. Always here to help." He stopped though, face falling as he glanced at her. "Amy, Leon could have killed everyone on this ship."

She grew solemn as well. "You could have killed a Star whale."

"And you both saved it." He murmured. "I know. I know."

"Amazing though, don't you think? The Star whale. All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind."

"But neither of you could've have known how it would react."

"You couldn't." She agreed. "But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?" She smiled softly at him. "And you said so yourself. Leon could hear it. I think he knew what he was doing."

The Doctor looked at her before grinning and hugging her.

"Hey." Amy muttered.

"What?"

"Gotcha." She teased and they both chuckled.

They pulled away soon enough and Amy grabbed his hand.

"Come on. Leon's probably waiting for us."

The Doctor smiled and they hurried back to the Tardis, only for Amy to slow and turn to the Doctor.

"Shouldn't we say goodbye? Won't they wonder where we went?"

"For the rest of their lives. Oh, the songs they'll write. Never mind them. Big day tomorrow."

Amy's face fell as she remembered what was supposed to happen the next day for her. "Sorry, what?"

"Well, it's always a big day tomorrow. We've got a time machine. I skip the little ones." The Doctor replied, having not seen the change in her expression.

"You know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning?" Amy piped up then, remembering Leon's words when she informed _him_ about her skipping out on her wedding day. "Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready or just… just because you could?"

"Once." The Doctor said quietly. "A long time ago."

"What happened?" Amy asked, sensing his change in attitude, but he just turned to her and smiled.

"Hello."

She bowed her head as he went to open the Tardis, a phone chiming in the background. "Right. Doctor, there's something I haven't told you." She blurted out, having come to the decision that she was going to tell him, until she heard the phone. "No, hang on. Is that a phone ringing?"

The Doctor smiled and opened the door, walking into the Tardis only to stumble into Leon who placed his hands on the Doctor's upper arms to prevent him from falling back.

The Doctor blinked as Leon's cheeks turned pink and he turned his gaze away.

"I was, um… just going to get you. Your phone's going off."

The Doctor felt disappointed that Leon wouldn't look at him, but forced a smile on his face as Leon released him; clapping the young man on the shoulders.

"Right. On it."

Amy hurried in after him as he bounded up the stairs, pausing over by Leon with a raised brow at the man clearing his throat and turning away, before she headed up after the Doctor.

"People phone you?"

"Well, it's a phone box. Leon, would you mind?" The Doctor chimed, setting up the Tardis to go and hoping that whoever was calling would put some life back into the depressed blonde's face.

Leon looked over at him, not looking pleased. "I'm _deaf_ , Doctor."

"Screen above you will type it out. Go on. Answer it."

Leon turned to Amy, but the woman shrugged and Leon picked up the phone; clearing his throat. "Hello?" His brows furrowed as he read the monitor and he turned to the Doctor. "Hold on. Who?... You're joking, yeah? No? Um, a-alright then. Hold on a sec." He got the Doctor's attention. "Says he's the Prime Minister."

Amy scoffed. "First the Queen, now the Prime Minister? Get about, don't you?"

"Which Prime Minister?" The Doctor hummed, keeping his eyes on Leon for a moment before gesturing to a lever; which Amy pulled.

Leon furrowed his brows and returned the phone to his ear out of habit. "He wants to know which Prime Minister… Sorry, I don't think 'the British one' is specific enough… No, I'm not being rude, but this is the Doctor we're talking about. You can't be the only British Prime Minister he phones." Leon complained, making the Doctor chuckle.

It was definitely the first time he'd seen a companion get sassy with a Prime Minister over the phone. It was then that Leon's eyes widened and the Doctor swore he saw the man's mouth drop open in shock before he quickly closed it and attempted to school his expression as he responded to the Doctor's question.

"I-It's um… It's Winston Churchill."

"Oh!" The Doctor cooed, taking the phone from Leon's slack hand. "Hello, dear. What's up?"

Amy grabbed Leon's sleeve, tugging it in disbelief, but Leon simply pointed to the monitor which had the remains of his conversation with Churchill, making Amy's own mouth drop in shock as she read over the lines and the Doctor finished his phone call.

"We're on our way." He grinned, flipping the final switch and hanging up the phone so he could grab Leon and prevent the young man from falling away from the console. "Ready to meet Winston Churchill?"

Leon grabbed the console as the Doctor released him, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before letting it out and opening his eyes.

"No."

"Perfect." The Doctor grinned and off they went.


	3. Chapter 3

I watched the Doctor stroll out of the Tardis with a soft sigh. I felt bad for how I'd shouted at the man and lost my temper earlier, but with everything that had happened, I was more than frustrated. Now though, I was exhausted. It'd been a couple of days since I'd gotten a good night's rest—not counting the moments I'd passed out—and bouncing from adventure to adventure like this was beginning to take its toll. I was waiting for Amy to return from the wardrobe and the Doctor leaned back into the Tardis to call out to us both; loud enough that I could hear without my hearing aid, which was wrecked thanks to the Star whale vomit.

"Leon, Amy."

I headed over cautiously with Amy poking her head out first, as the Doctor introduced us to the large man smoking a cigar.

"Winston Churchill."

The man removed his cigar and said something, too low for me to hear, but the Doctor looked pleased and reached a hand out in excitement as I closed the Tardis doors.

"Winston my old friend." He smiled, but Churchill held out his hand for something and the Doctor chuckled. "Ah, every time."

"What's he want?" I asked and the Doctor turned to me as I walked up beside him with a small frown.

"Tardis key, of course."

I glanced at Churchill who spoke up a bit.

"Think of what I could achieve with your remarkable machine, Doctor. The lives that could be saved."

 _Figures._ I silently mused. _A time machine is worth a lot, no matter the time period. People have been dreaming about what they could do with them for centuries. It's no wonder he wants it._

"Doesn't work like that." The Doctor mused as I looked around and finally noticed the guns aimed our way, making me stiff.

"Must I take it by force?" Churchill lightly threatened, though I got the feeling he wasn't entirely serious.

 _Thing is, he sort of slurs his words together. It's hard making out what he's saying, much less, whether he's being sarcastic or not._ The Doctor responded too low for me to hear, but Churchill made the men lower their weapons as the Doctor addressed the phone call we'd gotten earlier. The man led us through a corridor, making me glance up at the ceiling as dust flecked down from it and there was a deep rumble that I barely heard over the chime of a phone.

"So you've changed your face again." Churchill commented over the noise and I turned to the Doctor in confusion.

 _He never did explain that back at Leadworth. Changed his face how?_

"Yeah, well, had a bit of work done." The Doctor answered and I grew more confused.

 _But I could have sworn…_

"Got it, got it, got it!" Amy chimed in, looking excited. "Cabinet War Rooms, right?"

"Yep. Top secret heart of the War Office, right under London."

"You're late, by the way!" Churchill called back to us as a woman headed over with a clipboard.

I glanced at her briefly, getting the feeling that she wasn't too pleased about something. With little to no hearing, reading facial expressions was a must.

"Late?" The Doctor questioned, looking at his watch.

"I rang you a month ago." Churchill replied, making me raise a brow at the Doctor.

"You got the date wrong?"

The Doctor turned to me affronted. "I did not! It's a Type Forty Tardis. It's… I'm just running her in."

We stopped as the woman went to take the clipboard and Churchill must have noticed what I had a moment ago.

"Something the matter, Breen? You look a little down in the dumps."

She smiled and replied, but I didn't catch it over the chiming of yet another phone, making me turn to the room it was coming from. _If my stupid hearing aid wasn't covered in Star whale vomit or messed up by the Doctor's little sonic, then I might actually be able to hear what's going on._

"We'll give them what for!" Churchill exclaimed then, making me turn back with a bit of a start as the man addressed the Doctor. "Coming, Doctor?"

"Why?"

Churchill took back his cane that the Doctor had been holding. "I have something to show you."

The Doctor turned to us, looking smug and Amy chuckled as he turned to me, only for his smile to falter.

"Everything alright, Leon?"

I opened my mouth, prepared to tell him that I couldn't hear much of anything with all the background noise and a busted hearing aid, but changed my mind last minute, trailing after Churchill.

"No. I'm fine."

We ended up in a lift with Churchill facing the Doctor and I as he smoked his cigar. The Doctor waved at the smoke, but I ignored it, planning on taking a smoke myself once outside. Churchill was rambling on about something, but the noise of the lift blocked any sound I could hear and upon entering the roof area, things didn't improve like I'd expected. A loud siren was going off, blocking out even Amy's loud voice as I took out a cigarette. The Doctor waved up at some man in a white coat and binoculars, but without hearing, I couldn't tell what was going on and I tapped Amy.

"What's happening?" I asked her, but she didn't respond before flinching at the flash of a bomb going off nearby.

The Doctor strolled over to us then, taking the fag out of my mouth before I had a chance to light it. He shouted something at me—myself catching the word "bad" via lip reading—and I begrudgingly abandoned my quest for a smoke while he was around and crossed my arms as the three of us looked out over the city. It was weird, seeing the barrage balloons flying over London and all the black smoke coming from the chimneys and smoking bomb sites. I became more solemn at the sight and Amy leaned into me for comfort as I draped an arm around her shoulders. There was a sound then, that cut through everything and I turned to see beams shooting out from behind a barricade and destroying German planes flying overhead like flies. The sound though, sent chills through me.

"Doctor, what was that?" I asked, though I don't think he heard me as he rattled on something to himself, too quick and quiet for me to follow. "Doctor—"

I cut myself off as he hurried up the ladder to see what had caused the destruction, but I knew something was wrong when a robot of some kind rolled out from behind the barricades of sandbags. The Doctor faced it head on, but I could see from where I was, the stiffness in his body and when the robot spoke, even _I_ could hear it clearly over the noise.

"I am your soldier." It said in a monotone, metallic voice. "I am your soldier." It repeated as the Doctor spoke with it. "Your identity is unknown."

I was confused again. _Identity? Does the Doctor know it? Or… is it supposed to know him? Better yet, how the hell did that end up here? Future or alien or whatever it is, it doesn't belong here. Anyone can see that._

"To win the war!" The creature screeched then, pulling me from my thoughts as the Doctor watched it for a moment longer before hurrying down and getting in Churchill's face about something.

Amy and I exchanged glances before hurrying after him as we returned back downstairs; myself attempting to get some answers once we were in Churchill's office, which was much quieter than the rest of the base.

"Doctor? Doctor, what's going on? What is that thing and why's it here?"

"Not now, Leon. I don't have time for you right this moment." He dismissed me and I winced.

" _What? It's nothing. It's not important."_

" _It'll take too long to explain. I don't want to repeat myself."_

" _Couldn't you just pay attention the first time I say it?"_

" _What a pain."_

I grit my teeth and moved away from the Doctor to go stand off in a corner out of the way; ignoring Amy's concerned look as I took a seat. I simply watched Churchill's mouth to read what he was telling the Doctor as they apparently argued, since it was too hard for them to tell me what was going on in the first place. _The Doctor obviously recognized that… thing and knows it's bad news. Just wish I knew how bad the news was or at least a name to call the stupid things. I'm beginning to regret agreeing to come with them. My partial deafness is only proving to be a hindrance… as usual._

"They are Bracewell's Ironsides, Doctor." Churchill attempted to explain to the man, giving me _something_ to call the rolling creatures. "Look. Blueprints, statistics, field tests, photographs. He invented them."

"Papers can easily be faked." I replied, gaining a brief glance from Amy and Churchill, but nothing more.

"Yes." Churchill pressed to the Doctor, who must have argued the point as well. "He approached one of our brass hats a few months ago. Fellow's a genius."

"A Scottish genius too." Amy piped in, attempting to ease some of the tension in the room. "Maybe you should listen to—" She was cut off as the Doctor lifted a finger at her; shushing her was my guess.

The move didn't please me. The Doctor wasn't the only one losing his temper.

"Alien?" Churchill said then, making me straighten as I was finally getting information.

Unfortunately, that's where my information gathering ended, because off we were, back down the noisy halls towards the map room. The whole way there, the Doctor and Churchill were arguing. I had no way of reading their lips in their heated discussions and the background noise was too loud. One of the Ironsides rolled past us and the Doctor gave it a look before glancing at me, but I turned away from him. _If he wants to brush me off like that, then why the hell should I pay him any attention?_ The Doctor stopped us as Churchill entered the map room though, asking something, but giving Amy a strange look for some reason. He then turned to me and said something, but was speaking too fast for me to lip read and I frowned minutely.

"Look, I don't know what the hell you're saying."

He said something more, grabbing my upper arms to emphasize whatever it was, but I pulled him off me.

"I can't hear you!" I snapped, making his eyes widen as I pulled a hand through my hair in frustration. "I can't hear much of anything in this building with the phones going off and the rumbling and sirens and background noise. Then you're mumbling and Churchill's slurring and my hearing aid is useless thanks to your trick earlier and the Star whale vomit. You can't expect me to just _keep up_. I'm not like you."

Those words hurt more than I wanted them to and I brushed off the apology I saw forming on his lips.

"Don't…" I let out a long breath. "Don't apologize. I don't know why I expected something different from you." I grimaced at the harshness of those words. "Sorry. I... I think I'll just wait in Churchill's office. Least it's a little quieter there." I muttered, turning and walking off; unable to hear him calling after me.

* * *

"Leon! Leon, wait!" The Doctor called after the man, but he couldn't hear and the Doctor let out a long frustrated groan. "Agh! I _really_ need to make a water-proof hearing aid or something for him. Things are never going to go well if I can't communicate with him."

"Yeah, well, you're not exactly communicating." Amy complained and the Doctor raised a finger at her, before grumbling and dropping it.

"Come on."

They entered the map room and the Doctor waited with Amy off to the side, bouncing ideas off her in the hopes of some inspiration; though he wished he'd paid more attention in order for Leon to be around to help as well.

"So, they're up to something, but what is it? What are they after?"

"Well, let's just ask, shall we?" Amy said, bounding towards a Dalek before the Doctor could stop her.

"Amy. Amelia!"

She ignored him and tapped on the Dalek, making it turn as she stepped back to prevent getting hit by its eyestalk.

"Can I be of assistance?" It said.

"Oh. Yes, yes! See, my friend reckons you're dangerous." Amy said, sort of mocking the Doctor. "That you're an alien. Is it true?"

"I am your soldier." It responded.

"Yeah. Got that bit. Love a squaddie. What else though?"

"Please excuse me. I have duties to perform." It said, rolling off and the Doctor went over to Churchill, pulling away his cigar.

"Winston. Winston, please." He begged.

"We are waging total war, Doctor. Day after day the Luftwaffe pound this great city like an iron fist."

"Wait till the Daleks get started." The Doctor grumbled as he continued.

"Men, women and children, slaughtered. Families torn apart. Wren's churches in flame."

"Yeah. Try the _Earth_ in flames."

"I weep for my country. I weep for my empire. It is breaking my heart."

"You're resisting, Winston." The Doctor pressed. "The whole world knows you're resisting. You're a beacon of hope."

"But for how long?" The man challenged as they walked around the map table. "Millions of innocent lives will be saved if I use these Ironsides now."

A Dalek rolled up then. "Can I be of assistance?"

"Shut it." The Doctor snapped at it before turning back to Churchill. "Listen to me. Just listen. The Daleks have no conscious. No mercy. No pity. They are my oldest and deadliest enemy. You cannot trust them."

"If Hitler invaded hell, I would give him a favorable reference to the Devil." Churchill replied. "These machines are our salvation." He let out a sigh of relief as a siren sounded. "Oh, the All Clear. We are safe, for now."

He left and the Doctor glared at the Dalek rolling after him as Amy headed over, watching him uncertainly.

"Doctor, it's the All Clear. You okay?"

"What does hate look like, Amy?" The Doctor asked her and she furrowed her brows.

"Hate?"

"It looks like a Dalek." He said with a frown. "And I'm going to prove it. Grab Leon. We're going to the laboratory."

The trio entered—Leon not looking pleased, but relaxing a bit upon how little interference noise there was in the lab—and the Doctor went right over to the professor in charge; Bracewell.

"Alright, Prof. Now, the PM's been filling me in. Amazing things, these Ironsides of yours. Amazing. You must be very proud of them."

"Just doing my bit." Bracewell said with a smile as the Doctor sat down with a folder and Leon idly looked through the papers beside him.

"Not bad for a Paisley boy." Amy hummed, making the man look up and smile with a chuckle at her.

"Yes, I thought I detected a familiar cadence, my dear."

"How did you do it?" The Doctor cut in. "Come up with the idea?"

"Well, how does the muse of invention come to anyone?" Bracewell mused.

"But you get a lot of these clever notions, do you?" The Doctor asked, tossing the folder back

"Well, ideas just seem to teem from my head. Wonderful things, like. Let me show you. Some musings on the potential of hypersonic flight. Gravity bubbles that can sustain life outside of the terrestrial atmosphere, came to me in the bath." Bracewell informed him, smiling as the Doctor lifted the blueprints and tossed them back down.

"And are these your ideas or theirs?"

"Oh no, no, no. These robots are entirely under my control, Doctor. They are…" Bracewell took his tea from the tray a Dalek brought him, thanking it. "…the perfect servant, _and_ the perfect warrior."

"I don't know what you're up to, Professor, but whatever they've promised, you cannot trust them. Call them what you like, the Daleks are death." The Doctor said sternly, poking the man in the chest as Leon looked at him with a frown.

"Yes, Doctor! Death to our enemies!" Churchill chimed from the doorway loud enough for Leon to pick up in the quiet lab. "Death to the forces of darkness, and death to the Third Reich!"

"Yes, Winston, and death to everyone else too."

"Would you like some tea?" A Dalek offered, but the Doctor suddenly turned around and slapped the tray from its appendage angrily.

"Doctor!" Leon scolded, but was ignored as the man faced down the Dalek.

"Stop this! What are you doing here?! What do you want?!" He shouted angrily as the Dalek shuffled back.

"We seek only to help you."

"To do what?"

"To win the war."

"Really?" The Doctor chuckled darkly and everyone's gaze shifted back and forth between the two. "Which war?"

"I do not understand." The Dalek replied.

"This war, against the Nazis? Or your war? The war against the rest of the universe? The war against all life forms that are not Dalek?"

"I do not understand. I am your soldier."

The Doctor pointed a finger at the Dalek. "Oh, yeah? Okay." The Doctor picked up a large wrench. "Okay, soldier. Defend yourself."

"W-What the devil—?!" Bracewell shouted as Amy winced and the Doctor slammed the wrench repeatedly against the Dalek as it shuffled; unsure of what to do.

"You do not require tea?" It questioned as Bracewell shouted.

"Stop him! Prime Minister, please!"

"Doctor, what the devil—These machines are precious!" Churchill tried, but was ignored.

"Come on! Fight back! You want to, don't you? You know you do!" The Doctor shouted.

"I must protest!" Bracewell tried again.

"What are you waiting for?"

"Doctor!" Leon called out, stepping closer.

"Look, you hate me. You want to kill me." The Doctor continued.

"Doctor, stop this!" Leon tried again, moving closer still.

"Well, go on. Kill me."

"Doctor, just think about this!"

"Kill me!"

Leon grabbed him and pulled him back, but the Doctor shoved him off as the Dalek scooted half an inch forward.

"Please desist from striking me. I am your soldier."

The Doctor lifted the wrench again. "You!" He hit it. "Are!" And again. "My enemy!"

The third time though, someone got in the way. Leon grabbed the wrench with a grunt and stopped the Doctor.

"Move!" The Doctor shouted at him, but Leon glared at him.

"Shut up and look at yourself! Who the hell are you, because you sure aren't the Doctor! The Doctor I know wouldn't be doing this! He'd be figuring out a way to fix things! Not letting his temper get away from him!"

The Doctor turned to Leon furiously. "You know _nothing_ about me! Now get out of my _way_!"

The Doctor shoved him harshly before beating on the Dalek some more; missing how his powerful shove knocked Leon off balance and into a table full of parts.

"Leon!" Amy cried out, hurrying to him as the Doctor raged at the Dalek.

"You are my enemy and I am yours! You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again. I've defeated you. I sent you back into the Void. I saved the whole of reality from you. I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks."

The Doctor shoved the Dalek back and it rolled to a stop before turning to the second Dalek in the room.

"Correct. Review testimony." It said as the other Dalek played a repeat of what the Doctor had told it.

" _I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks."_

"Testimony? What are you talking about, testimony?" The Doctor questioned, worry beginning to outdo the anger from a few seconds ago.

"Transmitting testimony now." The second Dalek replied.

"Transmit what, where?"

"Testimony accepted."

The Doctor's eyes widened and he held out his arms to those behind him. "Get back, all of you."

"Marines! Marines, get in here!" Churchill called out and two men hurried in, only to be easily shot down.

"Stop it. Stop it, please. What are you doing? You are my Ironsides." Bracewell nearly sobbed as a Dalek corrected him.

"We are the Daleks."

"But I created you."

"No." The Dalek shot off his arm to reveal sparking wiring. " _We_ created _you_. Victory! Victory!"

The Daleks teleported away as Amy spoke up from the ground next to Leon.

"What just happened, Doctor?"

"I wanted to know what they wanted." He breathed out. "What their plan was. _I_ was their plan."

"You idiot." Leon snapped and Amy turned to him in concern.

"Leon…"

He glared heatedly at the Doctor, a cut above his right eyebrow and his teeth grit in anger. "You just couldn't shut up, could you. Couldn't keep your temper long enough to think that getting you angry was exactly what they wanted. You're a moron. A big, stupid, idiotic moron!"

He grimaced when he tried to get up and the Doctor went over to help, but he smacked his hand away.

"Don't touch me. Just finish fixing this mess and take me home."

The Doctor looked hurt, but Leon forced himself up on his own and even brushed Amy off as he left the room. And the only thing the Doctor could think of, was what had he done…

* * *

I cursed as I dabbed at my forehead with a handkerchief, sitting on Churchill's desk with a fag hanging out my mouth as Amy entered the room.

"You shouldn't be smoking, you know. The Doctor wouldn't be happy." Amy commented, trying to lighten me up, but I frowned at her as she took the cloth and got a look at my injury. "Nasty cut, that."

"And a headache to go with it." I complained, letting smoke out of my mouth and snuffing out the cigarette; knowing Amy doesn't like me smoking while she was around either.

"I saw a first aid kit around here. Hold on a sec."

She went around searching and I could feel my anger from before slowly fading, making me feel like a hypocrite after telling the Doctor to cool his head.

"Ah-ha! Found it." Amy chimed, heading over and pulling out some alcohol swabs to clean my wound with, though her eyes softened as I winced. "Are you alright, Leon?"

I knew she didn't mean the injury.

"Why am I here, Amy?" I asked her. "You, I understand. You had the crack in your wall when you were a girl and he showed up, but I was just a friend who he decided to take along too."

"He thought you were clever." Amy informed me, but I scoffed as she placed a bandage on my forehead.

"I can be as clever as I want, Amy, but because of my stupid hearing problem, I'm hardly worth anything."

"Leon, that's not true. You've helped us loads!"

"By sheer luck." I argued. "My hearing aid has been busted every adventure with him and he's constantly taking us places where I'm useless. This is like law school all over again."

"That's not true, Leon."

"Amy, I haven't had any idea what's been going on since the beginning because I can't hear anything and no one will explain to me what's been said. You _saw_ me ask the Doctor and his response was like everyone in school. 'Not now,' 'I'm busy,' 'I don't want to repeat myself,' 'It's nothing.' My hearing's not getting any better, Amy. It's getting worse. And if no one's going to bother explaining things to me, then what's the point in even coming along? One day something's going to happen and I'm not going to hear, and someone's going to get killed. I'm not stupid. Travelling with the Doctor's not just a game or a holiday. People die, people get hurt, _lives_ are at stake. And I don't want to be the one responsible for that because of my disability."

"Have you told the Doctor this?" She inquired and I turned away.

"He can't even tell me what's going on. Why the hell would he care about my hearing insecurities?"

Amy draped an arm across my shoulders. "Because he _likes_ you, Leon. He went to your workplace to pick you up and he didn't have to. Like you said, this was him losing his temper over those Dalek things."

"Dalek?" I questioned and she nodded.

"That's what he's been calling them. Bracewell's Ironsides."

"Just making sure I didn't misread that earlier."

"Look, all I'm saying is that maybe he can help you somehow. Travel to the future and get a better hearing aid, maybe even see if someone can fix it, but if you don't let him know what's going on with you, then he doesn't know what to do. I mean, look at him. The man's an idiot. Who wears a bowtie?"

I quirked a small smile at that and Amy nudged my shoulders.

"There, see? Now come on. We could use your smarts."

"Yeah, fine. Let's go."

We got up and headed for the map room where Churchill was, myself grimacing at the background noise covering up the voices I _could_ hear, before all the lights suddenly went on. _That's not good. It's night outside. Having lights on is like painting a target on us._ I looked over to see a man attempting to use the switches, but the lights remained on.

"It's the Daleks." I said out loud, turning to Amy who nodded and used sign language to speak with me.

"Has to be."

Churchill was talking then, but I couldn't read his slurring rapid speech and settled for thinking about what we could do as I signed back to Amy.

"What do we know?"

"Just where the Doctor is."

"How much time before the Germans get here?"

"Ten minutes max."

I winced, looking around. "Weapons?"

"Nothing that can work on them."

"No, of course not." I said out-loud this time. "They're aliens out of this time period. We wouldn't have anything that would work. They're probably armored with shielding of some kind, so we have to come up with a distraction. But they're up high in our orbit. Too high for planes to reach. They have to be using a signal of some kind to keep the lights on. Do we know if it's a radio signal or not?"

Amy shook her head and I clicked my tongue, starting to pace as the others in the room grew quiet to hear what I was saying.

"Right, no way to block the signal. But how do we fight aliens? We're only human. The Doctor can fight them because he's alien, but we—" I stopped, eyes widening. "Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Amy. Amy, what did I just say?"

"The Doctor can fight them because he's alien?" She repeated and I snapped my fingers, pointing at her with a grin.

"Alien to fight alien. And what do we have?"

Amy started to realize it. "A gift from the Daleks."

"Yup."

Churchill though, was still lost. "What the devil are you talking about?"

I actually heard him too, thanks to the silence that had come over the room as I was ranting.

"The Daleks that were here were alien, but made by Bracewell. Bracewell has knowledge of alien technology. Shouldn't be hard to whip up one of his inventions and use that to get a distraction up to the Daleks. The only way to fight aliens is with aliens. And we've got the robot of an alien down in the lab."

"Leon, you're brilliant!" Amy shouted, rushing over and attacking me in a hug.

"Someone has to be with the Doctor being an idiot." I replied easily. "No time to waste though. We've got a moron to save."

We hurried down to the lab, only to find Bracewell holding a pistol towards his head.

"Bracewell, put the gun down."

"My life is a lie, and I choose to end it." Bracewell said, but Amy hurried over.

"In your own time, Paisley boy, because right now we need your help."

"But those creatures, my Ironsides, they made me? I can remember things. So many things. The last war. The squalor and the mud and the awful, awful misery of it all. What am I? What am I?" He cried and I frowned, watching him and remembering something from so long ago.

" _What am I? I can't hear anything anymore. I can't go to school, I can't work I can't do anything with my life because of this damn disability! Why do I bother at all?"_

"What you are, sir, is either on our side or theirs. Now, I don't give a damn if you're a machine, Bracewell. Are you a man?" Churchill exclaimed, drawing me from the depressing thoughts of my past at home.

"I get it." I said, drawing Bracewell's attention to me as I looked down at him slumped over in his chair, defeated. "Anyone can say they understand, but I really do. I've been where you are right now, Bracewell. Not for the same reasons, obviously, but…" I stopped, looking at Amy who glanced down sadly. "I've considered it, more than once."

"But why?"

"I'm mostly deaf, Bracewell. The only reason I can even understand you right now is because I'm reading your lips. Can't hear a bloody thing upstairs with all the noise and my hearing aid busted, but I didn't stop living. You know why? Because I meet people who said they needed me. And right now, we need you."

"Y-You do?"

I nodded. "Those Daleks are aliens from another planet and the only thing that can stop them or at least distract them, is alien technology. _Your_ alien technology. And I've only started thinking because Amy has pushed me to do so despite my anger towards the Doctor, because there are thousands of millions of people that could die if we don't do something. So stop looking at me like I'm the cleverest person in the room and _think_."

"What about rockets?" Amy piped in. "You got rockets? Because you said gravity whatsits, hypersonic flight, some kind of missile."

"It isn't a fireworks party, Miss Pond. We need proper tactical…" Churchill gasped. "Oh. A missile. Or."

"Oh." I hummed to and Amy looked between us both.

"Or what?"

"You can send something up there, you say?" Churchill asked Bracewell.

"Yes, well, with a gravity bubble, yes, but…" Bracewell handed over his blueprints. "Theoretically it's possible that we could actually send something into space."

"So how about some pesky planes?" I offered.

"What?" Amy questioned.

"Well, the weapons on the planes might not actually do much to the ship, especially if it has shielding, but just sending them up there and shooting at it could at least buy the Doctor some time. It's like a fly constantly buzzing around your head. Hard to ignore."

"Excellent idea! Leon, was it?"

I nodded. "Leon Travinsky."

"T-That _is_ an excellent idea, but fitting the devices to the planes will take time."

"I can help." I offered. "Great at fixing things. Quick learner. Show me how to do it, and I can help you out right quick."

Churchill nodded as Amy grinned. "Right then. You lot work on those while I'll keep an eye on things up above."

"And I'll see about finding a way to pick up their commands as well." Bracewell nodded.

"Let's get a move on then."

* * *

"Scan reveals nothing. Tardis self-destruct device non-existent." A blue Dalek screeched, having scanned the Doctor's Jammy Dodger while he'd been arguing with the white Supreme Dalek.

 _Nice try though._ The Doctor winced, taking a bite out of the cookie.

"Alright. It's a Jammy Dodger, but I was promised tea."

Just then, an alarm went off and the Doctor hurried to a panel nearby as the Daleks scrambled.

"Alert. Unidentified projectile approaching. Correction. Multiple projectiles."

"What have the humans done?" The Supreme Dalek demanded to know and the Doctor wasn't even sure.

"I don't know."

"Explain. Explain. Explain."

Then, a voice came over the Dalek intercoms.

" _Danny Boy to the Doctor. Danny Boy to the Doctor. Are you receiving me? Over._ "

The Doctor grinned. "Oh, ho! Winston, you beauty!"

" _Danny Boy to the Doctor. Come in. Over._ "

"Loud and clear, Danny Boy! Big dish, side of the ship, blow it up. Over." The Doctor chimed happily, bounding towards the Tardis as the Daleks shot at him.

" _Receiving orders to stay back, Doctor. Something about shielding. Anything you can do? Over._ "

The Doctor looked at his Tardis console with a grimace. "Ooh, must have been Leon thinking that quickly." He muttered, picking up the radio in the Tardis. "The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. I can disrupt the Dalek shields, but not for long. Over."

" _Good show, Doctor. Go to it. Over. I'm going in. Wish me luck. Over._ "

The Doctor made quick work of disrupting the shields and the planes managed to destroy the dish with a cheer.

" _Danny Boy to the Doctor. Going in for another attack._ "

The Doctor grinned. "The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. Destroy this ship! Over."

" _What about you, Doctor?_ "

The man couldn't help but smile at the action. _Such a human action…_ "I'll be okay."

Just then though, the Supreme Dalek came over the intercom.

" _Doctor, call off your attack_."

"Ah, ha. What? And let you scuttle off back to the future? Now fear. This is the end for you. The final end."

" _Call off the attack, or we will destroy the Earth._ "

"I'm not stupid, mate. You've just played your last card."

But the Daleks had one _more_ trick up their sleeves.

" _Bracewell is a bomb._ "

The Doctor's grin faltered. "You're bluffing. Deception's second nature to you. There isn't a sincere bone in your body. There isn't a _bone_ in your body."

" _His power is derived from an Oblivion Continuum. Call off your attack, or we will detonate the android._ "

"No. This is my best chance ever. The last of the Daleks. I can rid the universe of you, once and for all."

" _Then do it, but we will shatter the planet below. The Earth will die screaming._ "

"Yeah, and if I let you go, you'll be stronger than ever. A new race of Daleks." The Doctor breathed out.

" _Then choose, Doctor. Destroy the Daleks, or save the Earth._ " The Supreme Dalek announced. " _Begin countdown of Oblivion Continuum. Choose, Doctor. Choose. Choose._ "

The Doctor hated this. The big decision. A planet or ridding the world of Daleks. He hated what he was about to do. Hoping against all hope that he would have time enough to stop them.

"The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. Withdraw."

" _Say again, sir. Over._ "

"Withdraw." The Doctor repeated begrudgingly. "Return to Earth. Over and out."

" _But sir—_ "

"There's no time. You have to return to Earth _now_. Over."

The Doctor quickly rematerialized back in London and hurried into the map room where the others were watching the radio in concern, punching Bracewell in the face.

"Doctor!" Amy exclaimed as the Doctor waved his hand about.

"Sorry, professor." The Doctor apologized to the man gasping on the floor. "You're a bomb. An inconceivably massive Dalek bomb."

"What?"

"There's an Oblivion Continuum inside you. A captured wormhole that provides perpetual power. Detonate that, and the Earth will bleed through into another dimension. Now keep down." The Doctor ordered, using his sonic to open up Bracewell's chest to reveal a segment of circles in blue.

"Hold on. I'm missing bits again. Amy?" Leon asked, who quickly turned to explain.

"Bracewell's a bomb."

Leon frowned, looking between the man and Amy. "Can we stop it?"

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Never seen one up close before." The Doctor rattled on quickly, making Leon frown at him, but Amy repeated in sign to Leon.

The blue segments though, were starting to turn yellow, then red; working around clockwise.

"I take it when the thing turns rad, he goes off." Leon said simply. "And I don't see wires or anything, but if he's a bomb, why does he have memories and a personality and everything?"

The Doctor turned to Leon, mouth gaping, before standing up and grabbing him by the shoulders.

"You are brilliant."

Leon blinked, before the Doctor's lips suddenly pressed themselves to his. It was quick, but Leon was in a sort of daze as the Doctor quickly knelt by Bracewell once more.

"Tell me about it, Bracewell. Tell me about your life."

"Doctor, I really don't think this is the time."

"Tell me, and prove you're human. Tell me everything."

Seeing no other choice, Bracewell did. He told them about his home, his parents and where they worked. The Doctor, seeing the emotions running through Bracewell over his parents' death, pressed harder, but Leon finally caught hold of himself and smacked the Doctor upside the head.

"You moron. Pain and hatred doesn't make something human."

Amy understood that and knelt down to Bracewell as well. "Hey, Paisley. Ever fancied someone you know you shouldn't?"

"What?" He questioned, four of the five segments on his chest red and the final one slowly going yellow.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Amy said quietly, glancing at the Doctor. "But kind of a good hurt."

"I really shouldn't talk about her."

"Ooh, there's a her." Amy smirked, getting somewhere as the fifth segment began to reverse back to blue; something the Doctor noticed and joined in as well.

"What was her name?"

"Dorabella."

"Dorabella?" The Doctor nearly scoffed, but a dark look from Leon had him clearing his throat. "It's a lovely name. It's a beautiful name."

"What was she like, Edwin?" Amy pressed.

"Oh, such a smile. And her eyes. Her eyes were so blue. Almost violet, like the last touch of sunset on the edge of the world. Dorabella." He breathed out and the final segment turned back to blue; almost going white as the Doctor grinned.

"Welcome to the human race." The Doctor then snapped his fingers back at Churchill. "You're brilliant." Then to Bracewell. "You're brilliant." Then to Amy. "And _you_ are brilliant!"

He grabbed her and kissed her forehead, before standing up and grinning away at Leon.

"And you're the most brilliant of them all. _Excellent_ job with the planes. Don't know how I forgot about the shielding." The Doctor chuckled and Leon raised a brow, arms folded across his chest as though waiting for something.

The Doctor's smile faltered as he realized this and his smile fell.

"Ah, right." He muttered, spotting the bandage on Leon's forehead from when he pushed him. "I am… I am terribly sorry."

"We'll talk later." Leon replied, seeing that the Doctor was antsy to get somewhere. "Go on, you moron."

The Doctor grinned, patting his shoulders before bolting for the door. "Now. Got to stop them. Stop the Daleks."

"Wait, Doctor. Wait, wait." Bracewell said, stopping him. "It's too late. Gone… They've gone."

"No. No! They can't. They can't have got away from me again." The Doctor argued, but Bracewell shook his head.

"No. I can feel it. My mind is clear. The Daleks have gone."

The Doctor was devastated, leaning against a post as Amy stepped forward to try and cheer him up.

"Doctor, it's okay! You did it. You stopped the bomb." She smiled, but saw that it wasn't working. "Doctor?"

"I had a choice. And they knew I'd choose the Earth. The Daleks have won. They beat me. They've won."

Leon stepped forward now, looking annoyed. "Doctor, don't be stupid."

The Doctor frowned, but Leon wasn't finished.

"You can fight the Daleks again. You know you will, so you can be prepared for it when it comes, but there will never be another Earth."

The Doctor lightened up at that and Amy came up next to Leon with a small smile.

"You saved the Earth. Not too shabby, is it?"

The Doctor hesitated, but soon nodded, standing tall once more. "No. It's not too shabby."

"It's a brilliant achievement, my dear friend." Churchill smiled, holding out one of his smokes. "Here. Have a cigar."

"No." The Doctor grumbled with a wrinkle of his nose before turning to Leon. "You smell like smoke too. Have you been smoking?"

Leon turned away, waving over his shoulder. "I'll be in the lab taking alien parts off planes!"

"Leon! _Leon_!"

* * *

"Where's the Doctor?" Amy asked, looking around now that day had broken. "And Leon?"

"Tying up loose ends!" The Doctor chimed, pulling a reluctant and grease covered Leon along behind him. "We've taken out all the alien tech Bracewell put in."

"Won't you reconsider, Doctor?" Churchill asked as the Doctor pointed to a spot on his face while looking at Leon; trying to point out a smudge of oil on his cheek. "Those Spitfires would win me the war in twenty hours."

"Exactly." The Doctor hummed, pulling out a handkerchief and attempting to wipe Leon's cheek with it.

"But why not? Why can't we put an end to all this misery?" Churchill pressed and Leon took the handkerchief from the Doctor with a grumbled complaint; wiping his own face.

Neither of them seeing Amy's furrowed brows at the sight of their antics.

"Oh, it doesn't work like that, Winston, and it's going to be tough. There are terrible days to come. The darkest days. But you can do it. You know you can." The Doctor told Winston seriously.

"Stay with us and help us win through." Winston pushed. "The world needs you."

"The world doesn't need me."

"No?"

"The world's got Winston Spencer Churchill." He grinned and Churchill couldn't help but smile in return.

"It's been a pleasure Doctor, as always."

"Too right."

"Goodbye, Doctor."

"Oh, shall we say adieu?"

The two hugged, though Leon spotted Churchill reaching into the Doctor's pocket briefly.

"Indeed." Churchill smiled, turning to Amy. "Goodbye, Miss Pond."

"It's… It's been amazing, meeting you." Amy gushed.

"I'm sure it has."

She kissed his cheek and Leon held out his hand.

"Couldn't forget you, Leon. Excellent work." Churchill mused, shaking his hand and turning to go, but Leon stopped him.

"Churchill? I was actually asking for the Tardis key back. The one you snuck out of the Doctor's pocket while hugging him."

The Doctor frantically checked his pockets after sipping some tea, realizing Leon was right and Churchill turned back, handing it over.

"Oh, he's good Doctor. As sharp as a pin." He turned to them all then, smiling away after lighting a cigar. "K.B.O."

The Doctor held out his hand and Leon rolled his eyes and handed the key over. After freeing Bracewell to do what he wished, the trio headed back to the Tardis, where Amy spoke up.

"So, you have enemies then?"

"Everyone's got enemies."

"Yeah, but mine's the woman outside Budgens with the mental Jack Russell. You've got, like, you know, _arch_ -enemies." Amy said, leaning up against the Tardis alongside the Doctor, while Leon leaned on some filing cabinets.

"I suppose so."

"And here's me thinking we'd just be running through time, being daft and fixing stuff. But no, it's dangerous."

"Yep. Very. Is that a problem?"

"I'm still here, aren't I? Leon too, if you haven't noticed." Amy piped in, though the Doctor and Leon glanced at one another seriously. "You're worried about the Daleks." She concluded.

"I'm always worried about the Daleks."

"It'll take time though, won't it? I mean, there's still not many of them. They'll need a while to build themselves up."

"It's not that. There's something else. Something we've forgotten. Or rather you have." The Doctor said, before glancing over at Leon. "And possibly you as well."

"Us?" Amy questioned, confused.

"You didn't know them, Amy. You'd never seen them before. And you should have done. You should." He walked into the Tardis then, calling out behind him. "Leon! Our talk awaits!"

* * *

I sighed, climbing out of the shower that I _insisted_ I take before the Doctor and I had our… _talk_. Already though, I felt like a childish idiot, remembering the kiss from earlier and telling myself that it meant nothing, seeing as he kissed Amy's forehead all the time. _And he's an alien. Let's not forget that part. I don't even_ want _to know how that would work._ I towel dried my hair and walked out into the hall, only to nearly jump out of my skin to see the Doctor already there waiting for me with a smile; despite my upper half not being clothed.

"Perfect! You humans take forever to get clean. Amy's planning on heading to the console room, so let's drop by the kitchen and talk there. That way we won't be interrupted and you can get some food. You're too thin."

I looked down at myself before back up. _Yes_ , I was a bit on the thin side, but not as bad as it could be. I still followed him though, begrudgingly dismissing the fact that a shirt was nowhere to be found and I was stuck wearing my trousers alone. The kitchen was a rather nice set up and the Doctor went about cooking something up as I sat down; pulling out my busted hearing aid from my pocket and placing it on the table.

"Can you fix this?"

He looked back, setting down his spatula and heading over to pick it up. He looked it over for a bit, squinting and twisting it around, before setting it back on the table.

"Nope. Sorry."

I sighed heavily and then a plate was slid across the table, holding an omelet.

"Do you still want to go home?" The Doctor asked, sitting down across from me and I turned my gaze to my plate.

"If my disability is going to become a problem—"

"No! No, of course not!" The Doctor argued, but I countered easily.

"Doctor, it already is. I had no idea what was going on today, because I couldn't hear or read lips or anything, and everyone was too busy to inform me about what was going on. And as you said, I know nothing about you. You're a stranger to me, just as much as I am to you. You don't have any idea what it's like for me, to be stuck in a panicked situation and not having the slightest idea what's going on. And with how dangerous things are around you, there's going to come a time where my disability will either kill me or get someone else killed. I _can't_ be the one responsible for that and…" I paused briefly, looking at him. "And I'm not going to allow you to be either. So please, just take me home."

"…Do you enjoy doing this? Traveling with me?"

 _God, why does he have to make things so difficult._ "Yes. _Course_ I do."

"They why are you trying to leave?"

I frowned at him. "I just _told_ you—"

" _No_ , Leon." The Doctor said, grabbing my face in his hands. "Why are you _doing_ this? You're smart and clever. You could have anything in the _universe_ if you tried hard enough, but you're constantly giving up on yourself because of your disability. Dropping out of school, pushing away those who want to help, saying you're useless because of it, before you even try!"

"Because trying never did anything, okay?!" I shouted back, tears brimming in my eyes as I let out some of the frustration that had been piling up on me for years. "I _tried_ to fight back in law school, but no one bothered to help! I tried to get a better job, but no one wants a mostly-deaf person working anywhere that pays well, much less one that was forced to drop out of the best law school around. People look at me like I'm fragile and will collapse any second! Like my hearing disability somehow makes me stupid! So how the hell do you expect me to go and fight aliens when I can't even hear when they're coming?! I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me, you big, stupid idiot!"

"Leon." The Doctor said quietly as I closed my eyes and let out a small choking sob. "Leon, look at me."

He tipped my face up and wiped at a stray tear with his thumb before pressing his forehead to mine.

"Leon, I think you're brilliant." He murmured softly. "You've been so strong, to fight this long against your disability, and I think it's amazing what you can do despite everything… But I'm not going to let you go. Do you hear me? I'm not going to let you go back to that, that boring flat and your tattoo job in a small town where people look at you strangely. I want you to be _brilliant_. I want you to push past that hearing problem and go out there and be amazing. But I need you to work with me to do that, do you understand? I need you to want to fight too."

I nodded, leaning into his hand as he kissed my forehead and let me go.

"Now, eat your breakfast and I'll see what I can do about this."

He tossed my hearing aid in the air and caught it, heading for the door as I spoke quietly behind him.

"Thank you."


	4. Chapter 4

"Right! Leon, have I got a surprise for you."

I raised a brow at the Doctor, glad that he was speaking loud enough for me to hear him without my hearing aid, drawing my nose up from out of a book on Venusian law.

"How do you feel about museums?"

"Museums?" Amy whined with a wrinkle of her nose. "Why are we going to a museum?"

"Well, I've got something that needs testing in a non-hostile environment, so why _not_ a museum?" The Doctor replied, already setting us off and looking giddy as all get out, making me suspicious.

"Alright, Doctor." I said, standing once the ship landed and giving him a look. "What's with the bouncing?"

"Bouncing?" The Doctor questioned and I nodded.

"Yeah. In particular, _your_ bouncing. What's this thing you're so excited about testing?"

His grin grew wider, if that was possible, and he reached into his pocket and pulled something out; holding it out to me. "Ta-da!"

I took the object and twisted it around in confusion as Amy came over to look as well.

"What is it?" She asked and the Doctor looked even more pleased to explain.

"It's your new hearing aid, Leon!"

I looked at him. "This doesn't look anything like my hearing aid."

"Well, that's because it's not. Not entirely, anyway. Yours was beyond repair, unfortunately, _but_ I looked up a bunch in the library, got used to the systems, and I made you a new one with parts from the old one! Sonic proof _and_ vomit proof. Took a little doing, but I did it!"

I wasn't sure what to say, looking at the metal object in my hand in stunned silence, before Amy hit me roughly on the shoulder.

"Wow, Leon! A new aid! That's great, isn't it?" She pressed and I looked at her to see her giving me a gesture to say something.

When I glanced at the Doctor, I felt a little bad about staying silent with the worried look on his face.

"Yeah. Yeah, it's great. Thanks." I said, seeing the Doctor's face light up as I put the hearing aid on and turned it on.

Immediately, I stiffened, feeling the difference the moment I switched it on. The Doctor and Amy must have seen the change too, because Amy looked at me in concern.

"Leon?"

I looked around briefly, before turning back to the Doctor as I pointed at the ship's console. "Has it always made that noise?"

He blinked, confused. "What noise?"

"The humming." I said, pulling away from Amy and moving to the console to place my hand on the rotor. "Has it always been humming?"

I missed the Doctor and Amy exchanging amused glances behind me and the Doctor headed over, speaking in a hushed voice that I could hear now with the aid in.

"Yes, Leon. It always hums."

The ship seemed to hum louder in response to that and my mouth dropped open.

"Oh, that is brilliant." I breathed out. "That is j-just…"

My voice cracked and the Doctor grabbed my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze as Amy headed over and wrapped an arm around my waist.

"I haven't heard things like that in so long." I murmured, throat tight with emotion, before I turned to the Doctor. "Can we go outside?"

He smiled. "Thought you'd never ask."

* * *

"Wrong. Wrong. Bit right. Mostly wrong." The Doctor chanted, zooming around to different displays. "I love museums."

"Yeah, great. Can we go to a planet now? Big space ship? Churchill's bunker? You promised us a planet next." Amy complained, though smiling as she saw Leon staring up at the ceiling at the echoing of their voices.

"Amy, this isn't any old asteroid. It's the Delerium Archive. The final resting place of the headless monks. The biggest museum ever." The Doctor explained and Leon looked over.

"You know, I always thought I was hearing strange things coming out of your mouth. Glad to know you actually _were_ saying them and I'm not going mad."

The Doctor turned around with a grin. "Enjoying it then, Leon?"

Leon smiled, something the Doctor hadn't seen in a long while. "Yeah. It's brilliant. I can hear echoes."

Amy piped in then. "You've got a time machine. What do you need museums for?"

The Doctor had resumed his display searching as Leon moved over by Amy and leaned to speak to her quietly.

"I think he just hates archeologists and likes to prove them wrong."

"Oh, I see. It's how you keep score." Amy replied with a smile, only for them to spot the Doctor looking very hard at a box in one of the display cases. "Oh great. An old box."

Leon went over and looked down at the box as well, with furrowed brows. "What are those markings on it? Ruins?"

"It's from one of the old starliners. A Home Box." The Doctor explained.

"So like a black box on planes?" Leon asked before Amy could question it.

"Exactly." The Doctor nodded. "Except it homes. Anything happens to the ship, the Home Box flies home with all the flight data."

"That's handy."

"So?" Amy said, not looking impressed.

"The writing. The graffiti." The Doctor pointed out. "Old High Gallifreyan. The lost language of the Time Lords."

"That's your people." Leon murmured, looking at him as he hummed.

"There were days… There were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple Gods."

"What does it say?" Amy asked curiously, but the Doctor hardly looked pleased as he translated.

"'Hello, sweetie'."

Leon raised a brow, before the Doctor gestured to the casing.

"Leon, if you'd please."

"Now, hold on a minute. We're taking the box?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Yes, we're taking the box. Trust me. It's a message for me. We need the box."

Leon grimaced, but reached for the glass casing. "I'm _so_ not going to alien jail for this."

The Doctor looked at him and grinned. "You won't have to."

An alarm went off as they tossed the glass casing aside and nabbed the box, making a bolt for it and just barely making it into the Tardis before the security guards could get to them. The Doctor hooked the box up and Leon, Amy and him gathered around the monitor.

"Why are we doing this?" Amy asked, still lost.

"Because someone on a spaceship twelve thousand years ago is trying to attract my attention. Let's see if we can get the security playback working."

The monitor finally fizzled to life, showing a woman with a small pistol lower her sunglasses and wink at them through the screen.

"Who's that then?" Leon questioned, though Amy just smiled in amusement at the woman's action before the Doctor adjusted something and the screen changed; a male voice coming over this time.

" _The party's over, Doctor Song. Yet, you're still onboard._ "

" _Sorry, Alistair._ " The woman said with a smile. " _I needed to see what was in your vault. Do you all know what's down there? Any of you? Because I'll tell you something. This ship won't reach its destination._ "

"I can't tell if she's warning them or if that was a threat." Leon muttered.

" _Wait till she runs. Don't make it look like an execution._ "

The woman, however, didn't look threatened, simply looked at her watch before fixing her hair and smiling at the camera. " _Triple seven five slash three four nine by ten. Zero twelve slash acorn. Oh, and I could do with an air corridor._ "

The Doctor began scrambling around the console and Amy grabbed the monitor in confusion.

"I'm assuming those were coordinates?" Leon questioned, grabbing the railing on the console as the Doctor started up the ship. "Are we on a rescue mission now?"

The Doctor snapped his fingers at Leon, letting him know he was right as the woman continued on.

" _Like I said on the dance floor, you might want to find something to hang on to._ "

"Leon, hold that switch down for me to keep her stable!" The Doctor called out, whooping as he bounded to the door and Leon held a black switch like he'd asked.

The Doctor pulled in the woman from the video; her landing on top of him as Amy crossed her arms.

"Doctor?"

"River?" He muttered, before they both got up and looked out the doors at the ship.

"Follow that ship." River commanded and the Doctor closed the doors and bounded back over to the console.

"Right, Leon! Thank you!" He chimed, patting Leon on the shoulder and beginning to work the other controls once the man had let go; River assisting as the Tardis quaked upon following the ship.

"They've gone into warp drive. We're losing them. Stay close."

"I'm trying." The Doctor grumbled.

"Use the stabilizers."

"There aren't any stabilizers."

"The blue switches!" River argued.

"Oh, the blue ones don't do anything. They're just blue."

"Yes, they're blue. Look, they're the blue stabilizers." She reached over and pushed said buttons and the ship stopped shaking. "See?"

The Doctor though, pouted, fiddling a switch uselessly in annoyance. "Yeah, well, it's just boring now, isn't it? They're boring-ers. They're blue boring-ers."

"Doctor? How come she can fly the Tardis?" Amy whispered, looking curiously at the new woman.

"You call that flying the Tardis? Ha!" The Doctor complained. "Leon, tell her! It's not nearly as fun now, isn't it?"

Leon though was still looking a bit shocked, pointing at him. "I could actually hear you. I can't usually hear you through all the noise, but I could."

The Doctor sighed, dragging a hand down his face. "I almost regret giving you that now."

"No, you don't." River hummed, earning a dirty look from the Doctor. "Okay. I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to its destination, and parked us right alongside."

"Parked us? We haven't landed." The Doctor argued.

"Of course, we've landed. I just landed her." River corrected.

"But it didn't make the noise."

"What noise?"

"You know, the…" The Doctor made a weird wheezing noise that made Leon raise his brows.

"It's not supposed to make that noise." River scoffed. " _You_ leave the brakes on."

"Yeah, well, it's a brilliant noise. I love that noise. I wanted Leon to hear it properly." The Doctor pouted, moving to the door. "Come along, Pond, Leon. Let's have a look."

"No, wait. Environment checks." River insisted, but the Doctor rolled his eyes and opened the door.

"Oh, yes. Sorry. Quite right. Environment checks." He stuck his head out. "Nice out."

"We're somewhere in the Garn Belt. There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest that—"

River was cut off as the Doctor leaned back in.

"We're on Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra System. Oxygen rich atmosphere, all toxins in the soft band, eleven-hour day and chances of rain later."

"He thinks he's so hot when he does that." River commented as the Doctor bounded back up the steps.

"How come you can fly the Tardis?" Amy asked River then as the Doctor pouted over by Leon, who was looking at him in amusement.

"Oh, I had lessons from the very best."

"Well, yeah." The Doctor puffed up proudly, only for her to ruin it.

"It's a shame you were busy that day." She smirked, pulling her heels from off the monitor. "Right then. Why did they land here?"

The Doctor watched her walk down the steps.

"They didn't land."

"Sorry?"

"You should have checked the Home Box." He hummed, bouncing after her with Leon and Amy on their tail. "It crashed."

He shut the door behind her, giving Amy and Leon a look, before moving back up to the console.

"Well, she's fun." Leon mused, earning no response from the Doctor as Amy spoke.

"Explain. Who is that and how did she do that museum thing?"

"It's a long story and I don't know most of it." The Doctor grumbled. "Off we go."

"What are you doing?" Amy asked him.

"Leaving. She's got where she wants to go, let's go where we want to go."

"Are you basically running away?" Amy pressed.

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Because she's the future. My future." The Doctor begrudgingly explained, looking over at Leon, who was peeking his head out the Tardis doors.

"Can you run away from that?" Amy asked, drawing his attention back to her.

"I can run away from anything I like. Time is not the boss of me."

"Hang on. Is that a planet out there?" Amy asked then.

"Yes, of course it's a planet."

"You promised us a planet. Five minutes."

The Doctor frowned. "No, absolutely not."

"Oh, well then…" Amy sauntered off. "I suppose I shouldn't mention that Leon's already outside enjoying said planet."

"What?" The Doctor looked over at the doors and, sure enough, Leon was nowhere to be found. "Oh, _fine_." He gave in. "Five minutes."

"Yes!" Amy cheered.

"But that's all, because I'm telling you now, that woman is not dragging me into anything."

* * *

I stared up at the burning ship curiously, but closing my eyes to listen to the cracking of the fire that I could hear thanks to the Doctor's hearing aid. It was amazing. Sounds I wouldn't have been able to pick up on before I could hear now as if they were right next to me, and I realized just how much I missed my hearing. I could actually _hear_ the Doctor and Amy heading over before they reached me, and it was amazing.

"What caused it to crash?" River questioned then, not shifting her eyes from the ship. "Not me."

"Nah, the airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it." The Doctor said easily. "According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase shift. No survivors."

"A phase shift would have to be sabotage. I did warn them."

"The thing that was in the vault, yeah?" I piped up, making them turn to me as I elaborated. "You said it on the tape. Before you said the ship won't reach its destination."

River smirked at me. "Ooh, I forgot how clever you are, Leon."

"Thank you?"

"Welcome." She hummed, bringing the discussion back as she pulled out a scanner. "Well, at least the building was empty. Aplan temple. Unoccupied for centuries."

"Aren't you going to introduce us?" I hear Amy mutter to the Doctor and turned to him as he grumbled.

"Amy Pond, Leon Travinsky, Professor River Song."

"Ah, I'm going to be a professor someday, am I? How exciting." River chuckled. "Spoilers!"

Amy leaned towards the Doctor. "Yeah, but who is she and how did she do that? She just left you a note in a museum."

River overheard and answered her. "Two things always guaranteed to show up in a museum. The Home Box of a category four starliner and—sooner or later—him. It's how he keeps score."

"I know." Amy laughed and River grinned back.

"It's hilarious, isn't it?"

The Doctor didn't look pleased and pushed his way between them with his own sarcastic laugh.

"I'm nobody's taxi service. I'm not going to be there to catch you every time you feel like jumping out of a space ship."

"And you are so wrong." River hummed, speaking to him from over her shoulder. "There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die."

The Doctor turned around and even I couldn't help but look curious.

"Now he's listening." She smirked, shifting her eyes to me. "I even got Leon a bit curious."

I looked away in embarrassment, missing the Doctor's scowl as River spoke into a communicator.

"You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal. Doctor, can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon."

The Doctor begrudgingly did so and River did a small curtsy as she walked along the rocks carefully and Amy smirked smugly beside me.

"Mm, Doctor. You sonicked her."

"Childish." I muttered and she nudged me with her elbow to shush me.

"We have a minute. Shall we?" River called out and we regrouped as she pulled out a blue notebook that resembled the Tardis. "Where are we up to? Have we done the Bone Meadows?"

"Bone Meadows?" I asked curiously, but the Doctor grabbed my wrist and stopped me.

"Stay away from it."

"What is it though?" Amy asked.

"Her diary."

" _Our_ diary." River corrected.

"Her past, my future." The Doctor explained. "Time travel. We keep meeting in the wrong order."

I frowned, thinking about that for a second before a thought came to mind. "But then, won't there be a time where one of you knows the other, but they don't know you? You guys could have a fling in the future but because you're heading in opposite directions… the other won't have known it."

"Oh, sweetheart. You don't know the half of it." River said quietly and I went to respond, only for four wind tunnels to show up and deposit some men in tan army gear.

"Friends of yours?" I questioned her instead and she hummed with a smile as one of them headed over.

"You promised me an army, Doctor Song."

"No. I promised you the equivalent of an army." She countered, gesturing over to the Doctor. "This is the Doctor."

The man looked over and the Doctor saluted. "Father Octavian, Sir. Bishop, second class. Twenty clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song was helping us with a covert investigation… Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?"

 _Father?_ I thought for a split second before River turned to the Doctor, who was still frowning.

"Doctor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?"

* * *

The Doctor glanced at Leon as he dozed nearby on a chair under one of the tents. He hadn't realized the young man was so tired, but he'd also seen him assisting in the setting up of camp too. _The dark bags under his eyes when we brought him along only showed that he hadn't been sleeping well anyway. Three trips without sleep was probably pushing it._ He'd already tried getting him and Amy to wait in the Tardis, but both of them were far more stubborn than he knew what to do with.

"Which part of wait in the Tardis till I tell you it's safe was so confusing?" He snipped at Amy, who hopped up onto the table he was examining parts on.

"Ooh, you are all Mister Grumpy Face today."

"A Weeping Angel, Amy, is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced, and right now one of them is trapped inside that wreckage and I'm supposed to climb in after it with a screwdriver and a torch, and assuming I survive the radiation long enough and assuming the whole ship doesn't explode in my face, do something incredibly clever which I haven't actually thought of yet. That's my day. That's what I'm up to. Any questions?" He rattled on quickly.

"Is River Song your wife?" She blurted out and he sighed. "Because she's someone from your future, and the way she talks to you, I've never seen anyone do that. She's kind of like, you know, 'heel boy'. She's Mrs. Doctor from the future, isn't she? Is she going to be your wife one day?"

"Yes." He said, purposely dragging out the pause to bait her. "You're right. I'm definitely Mister Grumpy Face today."

"Doctor! Doctor!" River called from a drop module.

"Oops. Her indoors." Amy teased the Doctor further as River called to Father Octavian as well. "Why do they call him Father?"

"He's their bishop. They're his clerics. It's the fifty first century. The church has moved on." The Doctor answered as they headed over, him patting Leon firmly on the shoulder to wake him up, since he'd taken out his hearing aid to rest.

He started, but then saw who it was and relaxed, putting back in the aid and turning it on before following them into the module with a yawn. Once inside, River turned to the group, holding a remote in her hands.

"What do you think?" She questioned as they looked at the Weeping Angel on the screen with its back turned. "It's from the security camera in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's four seconds. I've put it on loop."

"Yup, it's an Angel. Hands covering its face." The Doctor hummed, and Octavian frowned.

"You've encountered the Angels before."

"Once. On Earth, a long time ago." The Doctor admitted. "But those were scavengers, barely surviving."

"But it's just a statue." Amy piped in.

"It's a statue when you see it." River corrected, winking at Leon when his brows furrowed and he brought a hand to his chin in thought.

"Where did it come from?" The Doctor asked her then, trying to draw her attention away from Leon.

The two were rather too chummy for his liking.

"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan. End of last century. It's been in private hands ever since. Dormant all the time."

"But how do you know it's dormant?" Leon asked then. "If it's never moving when you see it, couldn't it just be… I don't know, waiting for something?"

"On top of things as always, Leon." The Doctor smiled. "Two points for you. Point one: there's a difference between dormant and patient."

"And point two: the Weeping Angels can only move if they're unseen, so legend has it." River finished.

"No, it's not legend. It's quantum lock." The Doctor corrected, accidentally pulling a piece off the ceiling. "In the sight of any living creature the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone. The ultimate defense mechanism."

"What? Being a stone?" Amy asked, trying to keep her head wrapped around the bundle of information being thrown at her.

"Being a stone until you turn your back."

* * *

I watched the tape of the Angel for a bit longer as the Doctor, Octavian, and River hurried out and Amy called out to them by the door to the module.

"Anybody need me and Leon? Nobody?"

I turned around and sighed. "Amy, we're not exactly helpful in this situation. They've got more info on aliens and such than we do. There's not anything we can do to help."

She came back in, but paused, looking behind me and lifting a finger.

"What?"

I turned around and stiffened. The Angel had moved. Its eyes were no longer covered and it was looking back at us.

"That can't be right." I murmured, bounding past Amy. "Amy, keep an eye on that. If it moves again, scream or something. I'm going to go ask the Doctor and River if they know anything."

"What? You can't just leave me in here with it!"

"Yeah, well, somebody's got to do it. Just keep looking at it!"

I hurried out of the module and over to where the Doctor was apparently sniffing a book.

"Yeah, that's _not_ how you read it." I said, before turning to River. "Did you have any more footage of the Angel?"

"No. Just the four seconds."

"This book is wrong. What's wrong with this book? It's wrong." The Doctor drawled, shoving it towards me. "Leon, why's it wrong?"

I raised a brow. "You think _I_ would know that?"

"Just _try_." He grumbled as River hummed.

"It's so strange when you go all baby face. How early is this for you?"

"Very early." He grumbled as I flipped though the book.

"So you don't know who I am yet?"

"How do you know who _I_ am? I don't always look the same."

I looked up at him with a frown. "Yeah, you still haven't explained that, though you keep mentioning it."

He snatched the book back from me though, ignoring my jab. "Pictures. Why aren't there any pictures?"

I went to complain about his dodging my question, but remembered spotting a passage in the book and quickly snatched it back.

"Oi!" He complained, but I waved a hand at him.

"No, shut up. I missed something. Something important about the video… Oh, no." I paled as I read the passage over, shoving the book into the Doctor's arms abruptly and hurrying to the module. "Amy!"

I heard the Doctor and River hurrying after me as I got to the module and tried to open the door to no avail.

"Wait! Leon, what did you find?!" River asked me.

"Images!" I shouted, stepping back and slamming a heavy foot into the door and the Doctor lifted the book.

"'That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel.'" He read and River looked confused.

"What does that mean?"

"It _means_ that the video of the Angel you've got on repeat in the module is _itself_ an actual Angel!" I explained quickly. "God, I shouldn't have left Amy in there. I came out here to tell you two it moved. It uncovered its eyes when we weren't looking and now she's trapped in there with it!"

The Doctor moved me aside and called out to Amy. "What's happening?"

I could barely hear her muffled voice even with my hearing aid.

"Doctor? Doctor, it's coming out of the television. The Angel is here."

"Don't take your eyes off it. Keep looking. It can't move if you're looking!" He replied, trying his sonic, but it wasn't working.

"What's wrong?" River asked before I could.

"Deadlocked."

"There _is_ no deadlock."

"Don't blink, Amy. Don't even blink!" The Doctor told her as I searched the book for something that could help stop the Angel.

"But it's just a recording." She countered and I responded.

"No, any image of the Angel _is_ the Angel."

The Doctor started messing with some wires while River tried the locks again, before pulling out her pistol and trying to cut her way through the door. I could tell nothing was working though and grimaced before pulling out my hearing aid. I couldn't focus with all the extra stimulus. _Stone only when looking… Image of Angel is Angel… Back in time… eats energy… Eyes are doors to the soul… Wait._ I hurried to put my hearing aid back on and pounded on the door.

"Amy! Amy, don't look at its eyes! Look at its chest or shoulder or something! Not the eyes, Amy!"

"Why?"

River even looked over. "What is it?"

I briefly read over the passage in the book. "'The eyes are not the windows of the soul. They are the doors. Beware what may enter there.'"

"Leon!" Amy called.

"What? What is it?"

"What did you say about images?"

"The image of an Angel is an Angel." I repeated, confused as to why she wanted a repeat of that, but then there was a clang and the door opened.

The group of us hurried in to see Amy standing there looking stunned with the remote in her hand and the outline of a static image fading as the video screen turned black.

"I froze it. There was a sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an Angel anymore." She explained quickly as the Doctor unplugged the screen and went about sonicking things. "That was good, yeah? It was, wasn't it? That was pretty good."

"That was amazing." River complimented as the Doctor spoke up.

"Leon, hug Amy."

"Why?" Amy asked.

"Because I'm busy."

"I'm fine."

"And you're brilliant." I grinned, pulling her close and letting out a shaky sigh of relief. "I'm so glad you're okay and I'm _so_ sorry I left you in here."

She smacked the back of my head. "Don't go getting all sappy on me, Leon. Though I did kind of cream it, didn't I?"

"Absolutely." I said, smiling a little as I pulled away.

River though, turned the conversation back towards the angel.

"So, it was here? That was the Angel?"

"That was a projection of the Angel, reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant." The Doctor explained as I muttered under my breath.

"If it ever was."

His eyes met mine before an explosion went off and Octavian called out to let us know they'd finally blown a passage into the caverns under the crashed ship.

"Okay, now it starts." The Doctor said, before hurrying out with me on his heels; Amy and River following a moment later.

Upon spotting the long way down that we had to climb however, I paled and took a step back. River must have spotted me doing that though, and alerted the Doctor.

"Doctor? Leon's acrophobia is acting up."

The Doctor turned to me as I forced myself to approach the ladder.

"N-No. Nope. I'm fine. I can do it." I stuttered out, reaching for it only to stiffen.

 _O-Oh, God. T-That's a long way down._ My breath hitched and I could see my hands shaking, but I was then tugged back and pressed up against someone's chest.

"Leon. Leon, breathe." A breath said into my ear and I gasped, taking in the air I'd been depriving myself of as my body quaked. "It's alright. I promise. I'll walk you through it, nice and easy."

I nodded slowly, feeling my mind cloud a bit for whatever reason, listening to the Doctor's voice.

"That's it. Take it slow. One step at a time."

I felt tired, almost, before suddenly, everything snapped into focus and I blinked. The Doctor stood in front of me, grinning from ear-to-ear with his fingers on my temples.

"See? Wasn't so bad, was it?"

I furrowed my brows in confusion, before noticing that I had—at some point—descended the ladder. I shifted my gaze to the Doctor then, speaking my thoughts out-loud.

"What happened? How did I get down here? What did you do?"

"Well, you climbed down the ladder. You climbed. I hypnotized you. In that order." He smiled.

"You did _what_?"

"Hypnotized you. A mild hypnosis. Just dimmed your head a bit so you wouldn't realize what you were doing, thus preventing you from panicking about the height as I guided you down safely."

I went to argue with him or _something_ , but the fact that the Doctor could hypnotize me and do something like that completely blew my mind and I decided to just brush the action off for now.

"J-Just… don't do that again." I grumbled, stepping back from him when I realized how close he was.

He grinned as though I hadn't just told him to not do it again, and bounded off back to where the soldiers were.

"Do we have a gravity globe?" He asked and Octavian called out for one, making me blink as the Doctor was passed a sphere the size of a football.

"Where are we?" Amy questioned. "What is this?"

"It's an Aplan Moratorium, sometimes called a Maze of the Dead." River answered.

"Pleasant." I muttered sarcastically, still looking at the orb the Doctor had been handed.

"What's that?" Amy asked, not understanding.

"Well, is you happen to be a creature of living stone…" The Doctor began, before taking the sphere and kicking it into the air.

Needless to say, I stared up in surprise as it stopped in place and lit up the chamber we were in like a ceiling light.

"…the perfect hiding place." He finished his previous sentence.

"Okay… the globe part I get." I murmured, frowning at the light. "Shouldn't it be called _Anti_ gravity globe?"

"Hm." The Doctor hummed at that, but the others were less concerned about the functions of the light and more about the stone statues.

"A stone Angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for."

"A needle in a haystack." River commented.

"A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle of death. A hay-alike needle of death in a haystack of, uh, statues." The Doctor trailed off, shaking his head. "No, yours was fine."

"Right. Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection." Octavian ordered his men, then questioning the Doctor. "One question. How do we fight it?"

"We find it, and hope. Come along, Leon!" He smiled, grabbing my hand and pulling me as Amy trailed after us with a small frown.

It didn't take long for him to become distracted by River's scanner and I looked up and around at the scenery as Amy walked in. I assumed she was tired as she rubbed her eye, but nearly jumped when River popped up between us.

"You alright?" She asked Amy and I turned in concern, but Amy didn't seem uncomfortable in any way.

"Yeah. I'm fine. So, what's a Maze of the Dead?"

"Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds. It's just a labyrinth with dead people buried in the walls." River mused and Amy gave her a look as I snorted. "Okay, that was fairly bad. Right. Give me your arm and Leon, I'll do you next. This won't hurt a bit."

Amy disagreed when River injected her with something. "Ow!"

"There, you see. I lied. It's a viro-stabilizer. Stabilizes your metabolism against radiation, drive burn, anything. You're going to need it when we get up to that ship. Now you, Leon."

I allowed her to inject me, flinching slightly, but more than comfortable with needles in my line of work.

"So, what's he like?" Amy asked her, making me listen in curiously. "In the future, I mean. Because you know him in the future, don't you?"

"The Doctor? Well, the Doctor's the Doctor." She said cryptically.

"Do you know _us_ in the future?" I asked and she smiled.

"Course, sweetie, but I can't tell you anything. Spoilers and all."

I hummed, accepting that, before she called out a bit louder to get the Doctor's attention.

"Yes, we are."

"Sorry, what?"

"Talking about you." River clarified for him.

"I wasn't listening. I'm busy." The Doctor responded, but River and I caught on to his lie fairly easily.

"Doctor?" I called out and he looked at me and blinked as I pointed. "Your scanner thing is upside-down."

He flushed in embarrassment and slowly flipped the device the right way up as Amy chuckled.

"You're so his wife." She said to River, who smiled.

"Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy. This is the Doctor we're talking about. Do you really think it could be anything that simple?"

"Yup."

River paused, glancing at me for some reason before back at Amy. "You're good. I'm not saying you're right, but you are very good."

I wandered over to the Doctor as he looked at some of the stone statues. "So, this Angel, I read up about it in the book you had, but… isn't this weird?"

"In what way?"

"Well, from what the book was saying, they usually focus on zapping people back in time and eating their possible future, right?"

He paused, looking at me with furrowed brows. "Correct…"

"So why all of this?" I asked, rather cautious of _all_ statues after having Amy get attacked by one. "The escaping the ship is understandable, but why hide and lead us around? Seems… uncharacteristic. It's not picking people off or anything."

"Well, let's not encourage it, yes?" He mused, capping me on the shoulder. "Though a very good point. It's definitely up to something."

Gun shots rang out then and we hurried off to find Octavian preparing to chew out a trigger happy soldier who'd shot at a statue.

"Sorry, sorry. I thought… I thought it looked at me."

"We know that the Angel looks like. Is that the Angel?" Octavian snapped.

"No, sir."

"No, sir, it is not. According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil. So it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of décor."

I raised a brow, not liking the way the man was treating his faithful men. "We're chasing a killer statue in a crypt full of statues. What décor?"

The man glared at me, but I returned it as the Doctor spoke with the young man who'd panicked.

"What's your name?"

"Bob, sir."

"Ah, that's a great name. I love Bob."

"It's a sacred name." Octavian said, turning away from me as I huffed through my nose and glanced uneasily at the statue Bob had been shooting at. "We all have sacred names. They're given to us in the service of the Church."

"Sacred Bob. More like Scared Bob now, eh?" The Doctor mused, though I wasn't sure if he was attempting to help or insult the man.

"Yes, sir."

"Ah, good. Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron." The Doctor said, sparing Octavian a judging glance. "Carry on." The Doctor tugged me along, muttering under his breath. "Try not to cause problems."

"Sorry for causing problems." I snipped, tugging my arm away from him and moving over to Amy; missing his upset expression as we started hiking higher.

"Isn't there a chance this lot's just going to collapse? There's a whole ship up there." Amy commented.

"Incredible builder, the Aplans." River hummed.

"You keep mentioning them. What're they like?" I asked, looking around curiously.

"Had dinner with their Chief Architect once. Two heads are better than one." The Doctor chirped, though not with his previous enthusiasm.

"What? You mean you helped him?" Amy asked.

"No, I mean he had two heads." The Doctor corrected as I frowned at the statues.

 _So they styled their art on other species? Bit odd. All these statues and you'd think there'd be one with two heads._ I hummed as I looked at one.

"Must not be a vain species then."

"What?" River questioned, but the Doctor cut in before I could remember what I'd meant by that.

"That book. The very end. What did it say?"

"Uh, hang on." River said, pulling the book out.

"Read it to me."

"'What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us. The time of Angels.'"

We walked further up and I was fine, though Amy was beginning to get a bit winded.

"Are we there yet? It's a hell of a climb."

"The Maze is on six levels, representing the ascent of the soul. Only two levels to go."

"Lovely species, the Aplans. We should visit them some time." The Doctor mused.

"I thought they were all dead." Amy replied.

"Time machine." I responded, frowning again at the statues.

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "Virginia Woolf is dead. I'm on her bowling team. Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. Well, that's having two heads, of course. You're never short of a snog with an extra head."

"I don't get it." I said out loud, pausing at a statue. "You said the Aplans made these statues?"

"Yup."

River looked nervous though. "Doctor, there's something. I don't know what it is."

He frowned, realizing the same. "Yeah, there's something wrong. Don't know what it is yet, either. Working on it. Sorry, Leon. What were you saying?"

"If the Aplans made these, how come they don't look like Aplans?"

The Doctor raised a brow. "How do you know? You've never met an Aplan."

I scowled at him. "Yeah, but you've been saying it this whole time." I argued, pointing at a statue. "Two heads. These only have one."

"Oh." He breathed out eyes wide.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked as I looked between him and River in confusion.

"Oh…" She breathed out.

"Exactly."

"How could we have not noticed that?"

"Low level perception filter, or maybe we're thick." The Doctor said, rushing up to me and grabbing my face in his hands with a grin. "And _you_. Oh, you are _brilliant_!"

Pink threatened to darken my face as I looked at his bright, excited eyes; a bit nervous with how close he was.

"I-It's nice you think so, but would you mind cluing me in as to what I did that was so amazing?"

"The Aplans." He chirped as Octavian questioned him.

"Sir?"

The Doctor released me to get my racing heart back in order. "Nobody move. Nobody move. Everyone stay exactly where they are. Bishop, I am truly sorry. I've made a mistake and we are all in terrible danger."

"What danger?" The man questioned, River repeating what the Doctor has said.

"The Aplans."

"The Aplans?"

"They've got two heads."

"Yes, I get that. So?"

River gave me a smile, making me rub the back of my neck as I realized I'd caught onto something.

"So, why don't the statues?" The Doctor answered the man, gesturing to where River was. "Everyone, over there. Just move. Don't ask questions, don't speak."

I shuffled a bit, anxious to say something, but doing as the Doctor said and remaining silent.

"Leon? Feel free."

"What?"

He waved a hand at me without turning from the statues in front of us. "That. You're fidgeting. You've got something clever to say, so say it."

"Don't know if it's clever, but…" I looked nervously at the statues. "If what I said is right, and those weren't made by the Aplans, then doesn't that mean…"

"Oh, yes." He answered, making me pale as I realized just what sort of trouble we were in.

"O-Oh."

"What?" Amy asked. "What does it mean?"

The Doctor though, didn't answer her. "Okay, I want you all to switch off your torches."

"Sir?"

"Just do it." The Doctor ordered and they did, leaving us with just his on. "Okay. I'm going to turn off this one too, just for a moment."

"Are you sure about this?" River asked.

"They haven't killed us yet." I breathed out, making Amy turn to me with wide eyes as the Doctor flicked off and on his torch; revealing that the statues had moved to turn towards us.

"Oh my God. They've moved." Amy breathed out as the Doctor rushed past them to check further down and we followed.

"They're Angels. All of them."

"But they can't be." River argued as the Doctor ordered the clerics to keep watch.

"Every statue in this Maze, every single one, is a Weeping Angel. They're coming after us."

We regrouped with the clerics as River voiced her concerns.

"But there was only one Angel on the ship. Just the one, I swear."

"Could they have been here already?" Amy asked.

"The Aplans. What happened? How did they die out?"

"Nobody knows." River muttered, understanding.

"We know."

"They don't look like Angels." Octavian commented and the Doctor turned to me, surprisingly.

"Leon? Care to take a guess?"

"Um, well…" I looked around, information buzzing through my mind. "They killed everyone off. No food, so to speak. The Aplans have been dead for centuries, you said, so they've just been starving."

"Losing their image?" Amy asked and the Doctor nodded.

"And their image is their power. Power… Power!"

"Doctor?"

"Don't you see? All that radiation spilling out the drive burn. The crash of the Byzantium wasn't an accident. Leon, you were right on the money. That Angel was acting strange from the get-go and you noticed it. Oh, you are just… Mm!" He said, having not found the word he wanted, apparently. "It was a rescue mission for the Angels. We're in the middle of an army, and it's waking up."

"We need to get out of here fast." River commented as Octavian tried to get into contact with his clerics below.

"Bob, Angelo, Christian, come in, please. Any of you, come in."

" _It's Bob, sir. Sorry, sir._ "

Again I frowned, wondering how lucky the three clerics could get while surrounded by Weeping Angels and not knowing it.

"Bob, are Angelo and Christian with you? All the statues are active. I repeat, all the statues are active."

" _I know, sir. Angelo and Christian are dead, sir. The statues killed them, sir._ "

"How does he know?" I questioned under my breath, seeing that I caught the Doctor's attention again and hesitating a moment. "I-I mean, they probably split up to search that tunnel. If Bob happened to walk in and find them dead, he wouldn't know it was all of the statues. And if he witnessed it, he'd be scared out of his mind. A man who gets trigger happy when he _thinks_ a statue looks at him? He should be half way here and out of breath, but he's just found his dead companions and is calm?"

"If you keep being so clever I might have to just kiss you." He declared, stunning me in place as he stole the walkie-talkie from Octavian and began to question _Bob_.

"Bob, Sacred Bob. It's me, the Doctor."

"I'm talking to—"

The Doctor ignored Octavian. "Where are you now?"

"I'm talking to my—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Shut up." The Doctor snapped at him and I resisted the urge to smile.

" _I'm on my way up to you, sir. I'm homing in on your signal._ "

"Ah, well done, Bob. Your friends, Bob. What did the Angels do to them?"

" _Snapped their necks, sir._ "

"That's odd. That's not how the Angels kill you. They displace you in time. Unless they needed the bodies for something." The Doctor said to himself as Octavian took back the walkie.

"Bob, did you check their data packs for vital signs? We may be able to initiate a rescue plan."

The Doctor took it back. "Oh, don't be an idiot. The Angels don't leave you alive." He snapped, speaking back to Bob. "Now then, Bob. See, Leon here. He's clever and he just said something that has me wondering. You didn't escape the Angel, did you?"

" _No, sir. Snapped my neck, sir. Wasn't as painless as I expected, but it was pretty quick, so that was something._ " Bob answered, sending a chill up my spine.

"If you're dead, how can I be talking to you?" The Doctor asked slowly.

" _You're not talking to me, sir. The Angel has no voice. It stripped my cerebral cortex from my body and re-animated a version of my consciousness to communicate with you. Sorry about the confusion._ "

"So when you say you're on your way up to us…"

" _It's the Angel that's coming, sir. Yes. No way out._ "

"Then we go through the wreckage." Octavian said, taking the lead and shooing everyone further up, but the Doctor hesitated with Amy and I.

"Doctor?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Just go. Go, go, go."

Amy grabbed me and pulled me along, though I didn't like that Octavian was waiting back with the Doctor. Something about that man put me on edge. Amy yanked me to a stop then and I stumbled.

"Amy?"

Her eyes were locked on her hand that was resting on a stone and I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"Amy? What's wrong?"

The Doctor hurried up then, rushing past us. "Don't wait for me. Go, run!"

"Doctor, something's wrong!" I called out, able to tell from Amy's face that something wasn't quite right.

The Doctor doubled back, coming up next to me. "Wrong? What's wrong? Let's just go."

"I can't." Amy said, earning confused looks from us. "No, really, I can't."

"Why not?"

"Look at it." She said, glancing at her hand on the rock. "Look at my hand. It's stone."

"What?" I looked at her hand, but it was fine. "Amy, nothing's wrong with it."

The Doctor though, shined his flashlight in her face. "You looked into the eyes of an Angel, didn't you?"

"I couldn't stop myself. I tried." She said, making my heart ache as I realized whose fault this really was.

 _It's because I left her. I left her there and now the Angel's in her head._ I swallowed thickly as the Doctor tried to encourage Amy.

"Listen to me. It's messing with your head. Your hand is not made of stone."

"It _is_. Look at it." She insisted.

"It's in your mind, I promise you. You can move that hand. You can let it go."

"I can't, okay? I've tried and I can't. It's stone."

The Doctor's torch flickered and I spoke up.

"So we've just got to prove it's not, yeah?"

"Excellent idea, Leon. Amy, I'm sorry about this." He suddenly bit her hand and she recoiled with a shout.

"Ow!"

"See? Not stone. Now run!" He called out, pulling her along and grabbing me as he ran past.

"You bit me!" Amy shouted.

"Yeah, Leon's idea and you're alive."

"Look, I've got a mark. Look at my hand!" Amy continued to complain.

"Yes, and you're alive. Did I mention?"

"Blimey, your teeth. Have you got space alien teeth?"

"Yeah. Alive. All I'm saying."

"Expect incoming." Octavian said as we hurried over and the Doctor let us go to shine his flickering torch up at the ship above us.

"Yeah, it's the Angels. They're coming. And they're draining the power for themselves."

"Which means we won't be able to see them." Octavian concluded.

"Which means we can't stay here."

"But how do we get to the ship?" I questioned, concern growing when a cleric announced an Angel in view.

"Any suggestions?" River asked, having no ideas herself.

"The statues are advancing on all sides. We don't have the climbing equipment to reach the Byzantium."

"There's no way up, no way back, no way out. No pressure, but this is usually when you have a really good idea." River said to the Doctor who hummed.

"There's always a way out."

"Mind sharing?" I said tensely, nearly flinching when the Angel spoke over the walkie.

" _Doctor? Can I speak to the Doctor, please?_ "

"Hello, Angels. What's your problem?"

" _Your power will not last much longer, and the Angels will be with you shortly. Sorry, sir._ "

"Why are you telling me this?" The Doctor asked, the frown on his face making me think that he wasn't too pleased about something.

" _There's something the Angels are very keen you should know before the end._ "

"Which is?"

" _I died in fear._ "

I could hear a pin drop, the silence was so thick.

"I'm sorry?"

" _You told me my fear would keep me alive, but I died afraid, in pain and alone. You made me trust you, and when it mattered, you let me down._ "

"What are they doing?" Amy whispered from beside me to River.

"They're trying to make him angry."

"So why is it something tells me that's not a very smart idea?" I murmured, remembering what happened back on the Starship UK and in Churchill's bunker when the Doctor was angry.

" _I'm sorry, sir. The Angels were very keen for you to know that._ " The Angel informed the Doctor, who was definitely not pleased.

"Well then, the Angels have made their second mistake because I'm not going to let that pass. I'm sorry you're dead, Bob, but I swear to whatever is left of you, they will be sorrier."

" _But you're trapped, sir and about to die._ "

"Yeah. I'm trapped. And you know what? Speaking of traps, this trap has got a great big mistake in it. A great big, whopping mistake."

" _What mistake, sir?_ "

"Trust me?" The Doctor asked suddenly, turning to Amy.

"Yeah."

He shifted to River. "Trust me?"

"Always."

Then to Octavian. "You lot, trust me?"

"We have faith, sir."

The Doctor's eyes sifted to mine. "And you, Leon?"

I thought about it, searching within me to see if I really _did_ trust the Doctor. I wasn't one to blindly put my faith into anything, much less trust people. I think he knew that too, which was why he asked me last. _Do I trust him? He's helped me with my hearing and has helped with the Star Whale, the daleks, and the aliens at Leadworth, but… I-I don't know._ I swallowed thickly before answering.

"I trust you with this."

He seemed a little disappointed, but nodded and turned back to Octavian. "Give me your gun. I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. When I do, jump."

He hopped in place as an example as Octavian passed him the weapon.

"What signal?"

"You won't miss it." The Doctor said, pointing the gun upwards as the Angels chimed in once more.

" _Sorry, can I ask again? You mentioned a mistake we made._ "

"Oh, big mistake. Huge. Didn't anyone every tell you there's one thing you never put in a trap? If you're smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there is one thing you never, ever put in a trap."

" _And what would that be, sir?_ "

"Me."

He fired a shot up into the air and we all jumped.


	5. Chapter 5

"You okay?"

I groaned, feeling a hand on my shoulder as I pushed myself up from off the ground. "Maybe? God, I've got a hell of a hangover, Mels."

The hand stiffened and I frowned, scrunching my eyes and turning to who I thought was Mels, only for River to be staring at me with wide eyes. _Right… Not at home, not hungover. I'm with the Doctor. We're being chased by killer statues and we… jumped?_

"Sorry, what happened?" I questioned, bringing a hand to my head and wincing.

"You called me Mels."

"Right. Sorry. Thought I was at a friend's place, pissed. We still being chased by Angels?"

"Up, up. Look up." The Doctor called out and I did, only to instantly regret it.

"Oh, God…"

The ground I assumed I was on was actually the hull of the ship sticking out from the ceiling of the cavern we'd been in. When we'd jumped, we somehow landed on the ceiling, thus leaving the ground a very long way down.

"Doctor, perhaps informing someone with acrophobia to look up at the ground hundreds of feet below was _not_ the best idea." River scolded him as she covered my eyes to stop me from looking any longer at the dizzying heights. "Calm down, Leon. You'll be alright. Deep breathes. _Breathe_."

I sucked in a gasping breath, not realizing I'd been holding it until she demanded that I breathe.

"G-Gravity." I muttered, trying to distract myself. "H-How did we switch around the gravity?"

"The artificial gravity." The Doctor explained quickly. "One good jump, and up we fell. Shot out the grav globe to give us an updraft, and here we are."

"A-Ah… Don't exactly get it, but a-alright." I replied, earning a pat on the back from the Doctor as River squeezed my shoulder and Octavian spoke up while the Doctor sonicked something.

"Doctor, the statues. They look more like Angels now."

"They're feeding on the radiation from the wreckage, draining all the power from the ship, restoring themselves. Within an hour, they'll be an army."

"Good to know." I murmured, giving River a small nod of appreciation as she took her hand from off my eyes.

I wasn't about to look up now, if I had a choice, though the shivers of fear were still running through me just _knowing_ where we were. Thankfully, the Doctor opened the hatch he'd been working on, though the lights that had been flickering began to spark out.

"They're taking out the lights. Look at them. Look at the Angels. Into the ship, now. Quickly, all of you."

"How?" Amy questioned, but I wasn't one to worry about that when the other risk was remembering that I could fall off the hull of the ship at any moment.

"Don't care. Move."

I squeezed past her and clambered into the hatch after the Doctor, rather pleased he'd caught me, because my legs were still a bit shaky.

"Doctor! Leon!"

I pulled myself away from the Doctor and glanced back at the hatch to see Amy rather tipped sideways.

"Oh, that's weird."

"It's just a corridor. The gravity orientates to the floor." The Doctor explained. "Now, in here, all of you. Don't take your eyes off the Angels. Move, move, move."

The Doctor scanned a panel as the others worked their way inside and I hovered beside him.

"Looking for an exit?"

"Sealing it, actually." He replied and I grimaced as the last of the clerics dropped in and the hatch sealed back up.

"The Angels. Presumably they can jump up too?" Octavian asked.

"They've got wings." I reminded him, ignoring the annoyed look sent my way.

"They're here now. In the dark, we're finished." He started, but an alarm went off and he rushed towards the door closing the hallway off.

"This whole place is a death trap!" Octavian complained as the Doctor stood before the door.

"No, it's a time bomb. Well, it's a death trap and a time bomb. And now it's a dead end. Nobody panic." He said as sparks came from the closed hatch. "Oh, just me then. What's through here?" He asked and River answered.

"Secondary flight deck."

"Okay. So, we've basically run up the inside of a chimney, yeah? So, what if the gravity fails?" Amy asked and I grimaced.

" _Why_ do you need to ask that?"

"What?" She questioned, not understanding.

"Gravity fails; the ship falls through the cavern with us in it." I explained and she winced.

"Right."

The Doctor cut in then, having been trying to find a way to open the door locking us in. "The security protocols are still live. There's no way to override them. It's impossible."

"Yeah, no it's not." I argued, knowing the Doctor didn't do impossible. "What do you need?"

He glanced at me with a sad smile. "Time."

"How long?" River asked.

"Two minutes."

The clanging on the hatch stopped and the lights dimmed further.

"The hull is breached and the power's failing." Octavian muttered.

The lights went out and I stiffened upon seeing a stone arm at the hatch; Amy's hand gripping my arm tightly.

"Doctor? Lights?"

The lights flickered as the Doctor tried to fix them by where River had pulled out some internal wiring, before finally turning on. There were four Angels inside though, not easing anyone's fear.

"Clerics, keep watching them." Octavian ordered.

"And don't look at their eyes. Anywhere else. Not the eyes." The Doctor said, making me worry about what that meant for Amy. "I've isolated the lighting grid. They can't drain the power now."

"Good work, Doctor." Octavian complimented, but I knew something he didn't.

"What's the 'but'?" I asked, catching the group's attention. "You don't look like you're pleased about the lights. There's a 'but' somewhere in that sentence, yeah?"

"Yes, well, there's only one way to open this door. I guess I'll need to route all the power in this section through the door control."

"Good. Fine. Do it." Octavian replied, but I groaned.

"All the power… You need to take out the lights."

Octavian glanced at the Doctor for confirmation and he nodded. "How long for?"

"Fraction of a second, maybe longer."

"Maybe?"

I frowned at the man. "It takes a while for any computer system to reset itself. Future or alien tech, there's no way it will take less than ten seconds."

Amy's grip on my arm tightened. "Doctor, we lost the torches. We'll be in total darkness."

"No. If the cleric continuously fire, there will be flashes of light enough to slow the Angels down." I argued. "Not for long, but maybe long enough?"

The Doctor nodded. "No other way. Bishop."

Octavian turned to River. "Doctor Song, I've lost good clerics today. Do you trust this man?"

"I thought that was established earlier when he asked if you trusted him." I grumbled, ignored for the moment.

"I absolutely trust him." She said confidently.

"He's not some kind of madman, then?"

She held back a smile. "I absolutely trust him." She repeated and I snorted as the Doctor went back to work, accepting that answer.

I spotted Octavian heading towards her though and frowned. This was the second time he'd done so and both times, River looked uncomfortable. Now, I may be a bit unsociable and I may not have known River for long, but I knew body language like a professional. And I knew that whatever Octavian was doing, wasn't pleasant and I'd only seen that sort of look from a few. Abusive boyfriends, lecherous bosses, and my own mother. I didn't want to make a scene though. I was furious and more than willing to hit the so-called 'man of God', but in the current situation, that wouldn't be smart.

"Okay, Doctor. We've got your back."

"Bless you, Bishop." The Doctor replied, looking as though he'd have done it with or without the man's permission.

I shuffled though, moving towards River. "If he does that again, I'm not going to stand by and watch." I murmured to her, earning a soft smile.

"You're too protective for your own good, Leon. And a real sweetheart, but I'll be fine. I can handle myself better than you'd think."

"I know. I watched you break out of a ship." I hummed, cracking a small smile. "Doesn't mean I won't hold him down for you."

She chuckled. "You always were the knight in shining armor type."

I paused, looking at her as she went back to messing with the internal wires; a familiar voice drifting through my head.

" _Oh, you're one of those types, aren't you? The knight in shining armor saving the damsels in distress? But you're really just a big pushover, huh? A soft and mushy teddy bear on the inside."_

 _Huh… she reminds me of Mels._ I mused before the Doctor called out.

"Leon? Could use your help over here."

I bounded over as he gestured to the door.

"When the lights go down, the wheel should release. You and Amy need to spin it clockwise four turns."

"Ten." Amy said as I reached out to grab the wheel.

"No, four. Four turns." The Doctor corrected, making me glance at Amy in confusion as she frowned.

"Yeah, four. I heard you."

 _Then why'd she say, 'ten'?_ I wondered as the Doctor called out.

"Ready!"

"On my count then." Octavian said solemnly. "God be with us all. Three, two, one, fire!"

I thankfully clicked my hearing aid off before the clerics began firing and put my shoulders to the wheel to turn it with Amy. It was heavier than it looked, but the bulkhead opened up enough for people to get through. The Doctor and I were the last ones through—myself unable to hear him call out the retreat—and I let out a relieved sigh when the door shut behind us and the Doctor rushed us to the next one. We ended up in a control center of sorts, the secondary flight deck, I remember him saying. It looked wrecked with wires all over the place, but I was trying to click my hearing aid back on while Octavian went and secured a door the Angels were trying to break through. Two more doors were sealed with something that I missed out on as I finally got my aid back on.

"Doctor, how long have we got?" Octavian asked then and I frowned, almost wishing I had my aid off still, if the first thing I was going to hear was Octavian's voice.

"Five minutes max."

"Nine." Amy corrected and I furrowed my brows as the Doctor argued.

"Five."

"Five. Right. Yeah." She said, looking lost.

"Why'd you say nine?"

"I didn't." She replied and I grew concerned.

 _I don't like this. Something's wrong, but I can't quite put my finger on it. And with the Doctor so urgently demanding that people not look the Angels in the eye… I get the feeling that it fooling her into thinking her arm was stone was just the beginning._ I moved over to River and nudged her.

"Hey, can I hang onto that book on the Angels? I want to see if there's anything useful we may have missed."

She nodded and passed it over, speaking to everyone. "We need another way out of here."

"There isn't one."

"There's _always_ one." I muttered looking around as the Doctor nodded and pat me on the back, starting to pace.

"Yeah, there is. Course there is. This is a galaxy class ship. Goes for years between planet falls. So what do they need?"

"Of course." River breathed as the Doctor snapped his fingers at her and I frowned, a list of essentials running through my head, though none of which that could help us.

"Of course what?" Amy asked. "What do they need?"

Octavian seemed to know the answer too, only frustrating me further.

"Can we get in there?"

"Well, it's a sealed unit, but they must have installed it somehow." The Doctor said, moving to a wall. "This whole wall should slide up. There's clamps. Release the clamps."

"What's through there? What do they need?" Amy pressed.

"They need to breathe." River finally replied and I resisted the urge to smack myself in the face.

 _Duh. Food, water, air._ I was brought out of my self-disappointment when the hatch was opened and the wall moved out of the way to reveal a forest beyond it.

"W-Whoa…" I muttered, staring in stunned amazement.

"But that's… That's a…" Amy too, was shocked.

"It's an oxygen factory." River said, though Amy had been aiming for something different.

"It's a forest."

"Yeah, it's a forest. It's an oxygen factory."

"And if we're lucky, an escape route." The Doctor mused and I pointed.

"Are those real trees?"

"Sort of." The Doctor said, until Amy spoke.

"Eight."

It clicked in my head then as River questioned her and I felt myself pale immediately. _Numbers. She's only said numbers. And not just any numbers. Numbers counting down from ten. But what does that mean? What happens when she reaches zero?_

"Is there another exit? Scan the architecture, we don't have time to get lost in there." The Doctor called out while Amy and I moved towards him.

"But trees on a spaceship?" Amy questioned.

"Oh, more than trees. Way better than trees. You're going to love this." The Doctor said, stepping out into the forest with me on his heels, speaking quietly.

"Doctor, she's counting down."

"What?" He asked, moving towards a tree, but stopping to give me his attention as I glanced back hesitantly at Amy.

"I don't know what's going on, but Amy's been saying numbers, right? Saying them, but not realizing she's saying them, and she's counting down from ten. I've already told you it was weird how the Angel from the ship was acting, but this is strange too. You can't tell me that whatever the Angel did when she looked it in the eyes just stopped after tricking her into thinking her arm was stone. This has something to do with it too. I'm sure of it."

He nodded. "Right, do you have the book?"

I bobbed my head.

"Good. If anyone can find something in there to help, it's you. Just keep looking through it and let me know if there's anything. Feel free to bounce theories off me if needed."

"Me?" I questioned. "Shouldn't _you_ be looking for something? I'm just a tattoo artist."

"A tattoo artist who could have been a lawyer. _Should_ have been a lawyer." He argued, placing a hand on my shoulder and looking me directly in the eyes. "Leon, you're clever. _Very_ clever. And I know it's hard for you to trust people, but I will put my trust in you for this, because if there's one thing I know you're excellent at, it's protecting those you care about." He smiled, patting my shoulder and pulling off the bark of one of the trees as he spoke up loud enough for Amy. "Treeborgs. Trees plus technology. Branches become cables become sensors on the hull. A forest sucking in starlight, breathing out air. It even rains. There's a whole mini-climate. This vault is an ecopod running right through the heart of the ship. A forest in a bottle on a space ship in a maze. Have I impressed you yet, Amy Pond?"

I gaped at the wires in the tree and up in the ceiling, until Amy laughed.

"Seven."

The Doctor looked at me as the blood drained from my face. "Seven."

"I'm sorry, what?" Amy questioned as the Doctor hurried over to her and I hastily began searching through the book.

"You said 'seven'."

"No, I didn't."

River had noticed too. "Yes, you did."

Octavian chimed in then, mentioning an exit path, but I was more focused on the book. _Come on. There has to be something. I'm afraid to skim it should I end up missing something, but it feels like reading over a single page carefully, takes hours!_ I was also growing annoyed at every little shuffle, bang, click and twitter that I could pick up with the new hearing aid the Doctor gave me. Don't get me wrong, I loved being able to hear again, but I was beginning to get a headache because of the over-stimulus. That, of course, only made concentrating harder so I begrudgingly removed the hearing aid. The familiar near-silence was almost comforting in a way, before a high pitched screeching cut through my concentration.

I cringed, bringing a hand up to my head in pain at the sound, turning to question what it was, before I saw something behind the Doctor. I blinked, greatly confused as the screeching went away and the Doctor stood. I wasn't sure if he was asking me something or not—his mouth was moving, anyway—but I simply pointed behind him and he turned. A large, glowing crack had opened up in the wall; something I knew hadn't been there a moment ago. The Doctor and Amy hurried towards it, pushing a crate over to get a better look, but I popped my hearing aid back in as I questioned River.

"What is it?"

She gave me a look that said she hadn't the slightest clue, before the ground quaked and Octavian decided we best leave. The Doctor had other ideas though and went up to sonic the crack before demanding we go.

"We're not leaving without you!" River replied, but the Doctor spoke to me then.

"Leon, keep Amy safe. I'll catch up."

I hesitated, but nodded, grabbing Amy and tugging her along with River following on our heels. I released Amy once she was following the clerics and I willingly, and turned my attention back to the book.

"How can you do that?" Amy questioned, voice quiet. "We're in a forest and you're reading without even a stumble."

"Always had my nose in a book." I murmured, stepping over a rock. "Even as a kid. Made it a thing to be able to read my surroundings a moment ahead of time, to prevent tripping a second later. There's a root sticking up maybe a foot in front of us." I said, not lifting my gaze. "I'll trip on it in maybe three seconds unless I step over it."

Which I did, making her frown.

"Smart arse."

"So you've said, numerous times before." I hummed, flipping the page. "What number are you on, Amy?"

There was a pause just a moment too long and I stopped and glanced at her to see how unfocused she looked.

"Amy? Amy, what's wrong?" River called out, noticing too as Amy swayed and I grabbed her; helping her to the ground.

"Four." She breathed out and I cursed.

" _Shit_."

She laid down as River demanded a med scanner and I placed a hand on her forehead. _Not good. She has a fever._

"Doctor Song, we can't stay here. We've got to keep moving."

I snarled at the man. "We're not moving a damn step until Amy is safe. You want to go off and try on your own, then go. Hope your God can save you from the Angels."

River nodded. "We wait for the Doctor."

"Our mission is to make this wreckage safe and neutralize the Angels. Until that is achieved—"

I pulled out my hearing aid again, not wanting to hear his moronic ideas as I turned away and tried to get through the book. _There's nothing. The only thing about Angels in the mind is the eyes being doors to the soul. Nothing about how to get them out. The hell. Are we just stuck trying to figure it out ourselves? Has nobody done it before? God, that's not a pleasant thought._ The Doctor cut through my musings, voice loud enough to hear without my aid.

"Yes, you're right. If we lie to her, she'll get all better. Right. Amy, Amy, Amy. What's the matter with Amelia? Something's in her eye. What does that mean? Does it mean anything? Leon?"

I put the aid back in, turning to face them with a frown. "There's no solution in here. Just eyes being the doors to the soul and the image of an Angel being an Angel."

"Doctor… Leon." Amy croaked out and it took everything in me not to look at her in an attempt to find _something_ to help.

The Doctor too, got up and began to pace. "What happened? She stared at the Angel. She looked into the eyes of an Angel for too long—"

"Sir, incoming."

"And here." The clerics called out, alerting us to even more danger nearby and causing the Doctor to speak faster.

"Come on, come on, come on. Wakey, wakey. She watched an Angel climb out of the screen. She stared at the Angel and—"

My eyes widened as it clicked. "The image climbed into her head. She has its image in her head, Doctor. There's an _actual_ _Angel_ in her head!"

The Doctor grinned, patting my shoulders. "Yes! A living mental image in a living human mind. But we stare at them to stop them getting closer. We don't even blink, and that is exactly what they want. Because as long as our eyes are open, they can climb inside."

He went over to Amy and knelt down as she spoke.

"Three." She breathed out, making me wince. "Doctor, it's coming. I can feel it. I'm going to die."

"Please, just shut up." The Doctor silenced her. "I'm thinking and your making Leon worry, thus preventing _him_ from thinking. Now, counting. What's that about?" The Doctor pulled out his comm. "Bob, why are they making her count?"

" _To make her afraid, sir._ "

"Okay, but why? What for?"

" _For fun, sir._ "

A wave of fury washed over me then and I grit my teeth tight enough to feel pain radiating up my jaw as the Doctor shouted and threw the comm.

"Doctor, Leon, what's happening to me? Explain." Amy asked.

"Inside your head, in the vision centers of your brain, there's an Angel. It's like there's a screen, a virtual screen inside your mind and the Angel is climbing out of it, and it's coming to shut you off." The Doctor rattled on as my mind raced, latching onto something in his words.

"Screen." I said, catching his attention and he nodded.

"If it was a real screen, we'd pull the plug. We'd kill the power, but we can't just knock her out. The Angel would just take over."

"So, we pause it." I said quickly, remembering what Amy had said she did back at the hangar. "We stop it on a blip. A blink. Amy, close your eyes!"

"No. No, I don't want to." Amy murmured, but the Doctor urged her on.

"Amy, do as he said, because that's not you. That's the Angel inside of you. It's afraid. Do it. Close your eyes."

Amy did and the med scanner calmed down as River gaped in shock.

"She's normalizing. You did it… You both did it."

I collapsed to the ground, feeling the strength just fade from me as I buried my head in my hands in relief.

"Thank God." I breathed out, feeling my shoulders quake. "Oh, thank God."

The Doctor heartily pat my back as the clerics called out more Angel sightings and River spoke up.

"Still weak. Dangerous to move her."

"So, can I open my eyes now?" Amy asked and I lifted my head in concern, but the Doctor responded before she tried.

"Amy, listen to me. If you open your eyes now for more than a second, you will die. The Angel is still inside you. We haven't stopped it; we've just sort of paused it. You've used up your countdown. You cannot open your eyes."

"Doctor, we're too exposed here. We have to move on." Octavian announced and I resisted the urged to hit the man.

"We're too exposed everywhere. And Amy can't move. And anyway, that's not the plan." The Doctor said, drawing out attention to him.

"There's a plan?" River asked.

"I don't know yet. I haven't finished talking. Right! Father, you and your Clerics and Leon, you're going to stay here, look after Amy. If anything happens to her, I'll hold every single one of you personally responsible, twice. Though I'm sure Leon will keep you in line. River, you and me, we're going to find the Primary Flight Deck which is…" He licked his finger and held it up to check the direction. "…A quarter of a mile straight ahead, and from there we're going to stabilize the wreckage, stop the Angels, and cure Amy."

"How?" River questioned.

"I'll do a thing."

"A thing?" I asked next, not sounding too convinced and the Doctor thrust a finger at me.

"Respect the thing. It's a thing in progress. Moving out!"

"Doctor, I'm coming with you." Octavian said. "My cleric will look after Miss Pond. These are my best men. They'd lay down their lives in her protection."

"I don't need you." The Doctor said, making me smirk as I moved to sit beside Amy.

"I don't care. Where Doctor Song goes, I go."

"What? You two engaged or something?" The Doctor questioned, annoyed with the man's stubbornness.

"Yes, in a manner of speaking. Marco, you're in charge till I get back."

The Doctor turned to me. "Leon, _you're_ in charge."

I cracked a small smile and I lazy salute. "Sure thing."

"Doctor?" Amy said, grabbing the edge of my shirt as she turned towards where the Doctor was. "Please, can't I come with you?"

"You'd slow us down, Miss Pond."

"Oh, piss of." I snapped at Octavian with a glare as the Doctor sat on her other side.

"You'll be safer here. We can't protect you on the move. I'll be back for you both soon as I can, I promise."

"You always say that." She grumbled and I felt a bit out of place during their little moment.

"I always come back." He countered, standing and giving me a smile. "Good luck, Leon. Keep her safe, don't let her open her eyes. And if you start to feel that there's no other option, you pick her up and come after us, yeah?"

I nodded silently and he pat my shoulder before bounding off. I closed my eyes with a soft sigh and turned off my aid for now as I brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of my nose. The headache had gotten worse now that I wasn't panicking about saving Amy, so giving my ears a break sounded like a good idea. Made me a bit jumpy though, when a set of hands suddenly grabbed mine and I opened my eyes to see the Doctor kneeling before Amy and I.

"Jesus. You're lucky I'm not a 'hit first, ask questions later' kind of guy." I complained, reaching up to turn my aid on, but he stopped me.

"Wait. Just… let me speak to Amy for a moment."

I paused, frowning slightly, but nodded. I turned away and kept my eyes on the forest while he and Amy spoke in hushed tones too soft for me to hear without assistance. It was annoying that he'd asked me to do this; using my disability for his own convenience. _It's like_ her _. Never caring about my problem unless it meant she got money or attention._ His hand grabbed mine then, tugging me up from the log and making me pause.

"Hold on. Where are you taking me? I need to look after Amy."

He reached up and clicked my aid on, pulling me a few feet away and stopping. "I'm sorry."

I frowned, confused. "Excuse me?"

He turned and faced me, but something was off. The look in his eyes held something that I was unsure about. Something I'd never seen before. It made me uncomfortable, unsure.

"Doc—"

"I know what I just did was wrong, but I needed to speak with Amy privately, Leon." He spouted out quickly, cutting me off. "And now I need to talk to you."

I noticed something then. "Your coat. You weren't wearing it before… and your shirt's different. Who are you?"

He smiled softly. "Still me, though you've always been so clever, Leon."

"Been. Why are you using past tense?" I questioned, growing concerned. "Doctor, what's going on?"

He closed his eyes, almost looking pained, before grabbing my hands and squeezing them tightly. "Leon… Oh, Leon. I need you to trust me. You, more than anyone. I need you to do that for me. And I know it will be hard. I know the importance of what I'm asking you, but please try."

I shook my head, trying to take a step back. "You don't know that." I argued. "You don't know _anything_ about how important trust is to me. We hardly know each other; so how can you expect me to trust you?"

"Leon, please. I know this is hard and—"

"No." I said shortly, annoyance growing with the man in front of me. "No, you can't just expect me to put blind faith in some… some time traveling, alien, history teacher I've known for maybe a few days. Trust doesn't work that way. I don't care _what_ planet you're from."

"Oh, you can be so dense sometimes." He grumbled, before reaching up and suddenly pulling me towards him; our lips mashing together in a heated kiss.

I had just started to push past my shock and respond, when he pulled away.

"You're going to have to trust me, Leon." He repeated as I tried to wrap my head around what just happened. "And in time, I know you will."

"Y-You… You're from the future?" I questioned, the only thing I was able to ask despite 'why did he kiss me?!' running through my head.

He smiled, but turned to go. "I'm sorry."

And then he vanished. I stumbled back, collapsing on the log beside Amy in more confusion than I'd ever been in. Every law book, test, class. None of that made me as lost as I was now, and Amy grabbing my hand was what drew me back to the present.

"Leon? What's happening? Is anything happening?"

"A-Ah, um…" I cleared my throat, looking around, just as the lights in the building flickered. "Oh dear."

"What? What is it?"

"You getting this too?" A cleric called out and another one responded.

"The trees, yeah."

"What? What's wrong with the trees?" Amy asked as I stood, not letting her hand go.

"Here too, sir." The third cleric announced. "They're ripping the treeborgs apart."

"And here. They're taking out the lights."

"Not good." I muttered and Amy squeezed my hand.

"What is it? What's happening? Tell me. I can't see."

I snorted, somehow finding amusement in that. "Now you know how I feel."

"Right. Next time I start doing that, hit me."

"Permission to hit Amy Pond? While I appreciate the offer, I get the feeling you'd just hit me back." I countered. "And the Angels are tearing apart the treeborgs to try and turn out the lights, if you really want to know."

"Not anymore, no."

"Angels advancing, sir." A cleric called out then and I cursed.

"Really not good."

"Over here again."

"Weapons primed. Combat distance five feet. Wait for it."

I turned away from them and grabbed Amy's other hand, leaning down to speak directly to her. "Amy, listen to me. If they get any closer, you're going to get on my back and I'll carry you to where the Doctor is. Got it?"

She nodded, before a light distracted me, making me turn.

"The ships not on fire, is it?" A cleric asked, them having seen the light too.

"No smoke." I argued, standing as another cleric agreed.

"It can't be. The compressors would have taken care of it. Marco, the Angels have gone. Where'd they go?"

"What? The Angels?" Amy questioned and I tugged her up onto her feet.

"Don't open your eyes, Amy. Just stand up. Just in case. I don't like the fact that the Angels ran off."

"The Angels have gone?"

A cleric answered her. "There's still movement out there, but away from us now. It's like they're running."

"Running from what?" Amy asked and I grunted, glaring at the light in the distance.

"Some light. Thing is, Amy, if it made the Angels run? Well, I think we should be booking it too."

The clerics had a different idea though.

"Phillip, Crispin. Need to get a closer look at that."

"What are you all looking at? What's there?" Amy questioned as the two soldiers split off from us and hiked to the light, while the other two joined us.

"It's like, I don't know, a curtain of energy, sort of shifting. Makes you feel weird. Sick." One explained to Amy, who turned to me.

"And you think it scared the Angels?"

I hummed, glaring at the light that almost reminded me of that crack we'd seen only moments before.

"What could scare those things?" The second cleric asked.

"Nothing good."

Amy though, tugged at my hand. "I want to see it."

"No. You open your eyes for more than a second, and you'll get taken over, Amy." I argued, but she insisted.

"No more than a second. I can do that."

"Amy."

"Leon, just let me. Please."

I grit my teeth, but begrudgingly gave in. "Fine."

I turned her towards the light and gave her hand a squeeze. Her eyes blinked open and then widened at the sight.

"It's the same shape. It's the crack in my wall." She breathed out, but the more she spoke, the more I knew she was running out of time. "It's following me. How can it be following me?"

I placed my hand over her eyes, speaking lowly. "Close your eyes, _now_."

She did, thankfully, and one of the clerics spoke to the other.

"Marco, you want me to get a closer look at that?"

I frowned. "But you just sent Crispin and Phillip to do that."

"Crispin and who?" Marco questioned and a stone settled in my gut as he sent Pedro out as well.

"Your two other men."

"There was never a Crispin or a Phillip on this mission. I promise you."

Amy though, argued with me. "No, I heard you too. Before you sent Pedro, you sent Crispin and Phillip, and now you can't even remember them. Something happened. I don't know what, and you don't even remember."

"Pedro?" Marco asked and that weight in my stomach sank further. "Who's Pedro?"

"Yeah, enough. We're leaving. _Now_." I said, seriously. "Amy, get on my back."

"But the others—"

"Are gone, apparently. And I'm not about to let us get caught up in this, nor you, Marco."

He frowned though. "The Bishop put me in charge."

"And the Doctor put _me_ in charge." I argued, stepping up to the man and glaring down at him. "And my first priority is our safety. _Not_ our curiosity. Now whatever that light is, it's bad enough to scare the Angels away, and I bet anything that can do that is _not_ good news. So let's _go_."

He hesitated, but as I helped Amy onto my back, I said one last thing.

"Or you can stay and deal with this on your own. We're leaving."

Once Amy was settled, I started walking in the direction the Doctor had been pointing earlier; not surprised when the clatter of Marco following us came to my ears. _Thank God for this hearing aid, or else I'd have been clueless as to what was going on. I suppose I owe the Doctor a thanks for that, but what the hell was that earlier? A future him?_ Kissing _me? I can't even ask what it was about because this Doctor won't have a clue! Time travel is a pain._ I nearly jumped out of my skin when the Doctor's voice came over the comm that Marco had.

" _Amy? Leon? Clerics? Are you there?_ "

Marco picked it up. "This is Marco. Leon and Amy are with me. We're steadily moving to your location."

" _Where are you? Are the other clerics with you?_ " The Doctor asked.

"Give the comm to Amy." I demanded, my hands full as I skimmed my eyes across the trees in front of us, wary of Angels as the lights continued to flicker.

Amy was quick to respond to the Doctor. "They've gone. There was a light and they walked into the light. Doctor, they didn't even remember each other."

" _No, they wouldn't._ "

" _What is that light?_ " River asked before I could.

" _It's time running out. Amy, Leon, I'm sorry. I should have never left you both there._ "

"Well, what do we do now?" Amy asked.

" _Keep moving. Smart move there, Leon. The Primary Flight Deck is on the other end of the forest._ _Leon? Here, turn until the communicator sounds like my sonic, that means you're facing the right way. Follow the sound. You have to start moving now. There's Time Energy spilling out of that crack and you have to stay ahead of it._ "

I stopped and did so slowly, a little unsure about the appropriate sound of the sonic after only having heard it a few times since getting my aid. Amy helped though, lightly kicking my side to get me to stop.

"What about the Angels?" Amy asked.

" _I'm sorry. I really am, but the Angels can only kill you._ " He replied, not making me feel any better as I grew a little more paranoid about what could be in the forest ahead of us.

"What does the Time Energy do?" Amy questioned, but I knew.

"It erases us, right? Everything we were? That's why Marco doesn't remember the other clerics. It literally erases time."

" _Yes, right. Clever, Leon._ " The Doctor complimented idly. " _Just keep moving. If the Time Energy catches up with you, you'll never have been born. It will erase every moment of your existence. You will never have lived at all. Now move, and stick together._ "

The lights flickered then and I immediately froze when they came back on. We were surrounded by Angels and a sickening crack told me one of them had gotten Marco. I knew attempting to maneuver with Amy on my back _and_ watch the Angels would be much more difficult with how many there were. The Doctor had found out about our predicament as well; the comm giving off a different noise.

"What's that?" Amy asked.

" _It's a warning. There are Angels around you now._ "

"Amy." I spoke up, shifting slightly. "I need you to get off my back."

"What?!"

I didn't dare close my eyes for even a moment. "I can't get us both through them while you're on my back. I won't leave you. I promise."

She slowly got down and I carefully grabbed her hand and kept her close to my back; not daring to mention why Marco was no longer speaking after glancing back briefly and getting a confirmation on what I'd heard.

"Don't get further than this, okay?" I told Amy, turning away from Marco's corpse as I tried to push the image out of my mind.

"A-Alright." She muttered as the Doctor came over the comm.

" _Amy, Leon, listen to me. This is going to be hard, but I know you can do it. The Angels are scared and running, and right now they're not that interested in you. You have to do this._ Now _. You have to do this!_ "

I grabbed the comm from Amy, growling into it. "You're _not_ helping."

I shoved it back into Amy's hands and pulled her after me, cautious of the two stone Angels directly beside us.

"Amy, there's two on either side of us. Place your hands on my shoulders and copy me _exactly_."

She did, and I ducked slightly under the Angels' arms with her right behind me. I didn't care for the flickering lights either, but we were slowly making progress as I navigated around the Angels.

"Amy, there's a root right in front of us."

"R-Right." She murmured, stepping over it, only to catch her second foot on it and trip.

She stumbled into me, knocking me off balance as I let out a curse and twisted to grab Amy. Unfortunately, this left my head open to slam against a stone at the base of a tree.

"—on? L-Leon...? Doc… Something's wrong…"

My head pounded and Amy's voice was slurred and kept fading in and out of my hearing, even _with_ the hearing aid. I struggled to try and get up or open my eyes or anything, but my body felt weighted down and moving my head made my stomach churn. And then, the weight on my chest was gone. _Amy_ was gone. I cursed, rolling onto my side and forcing my eyes open, but the world swirled dangerously around me and I had to press my forehead against the dirt to keep from vomiting. Then, the dirt wasn't there. Solid metal flooring replaced it and hands grabbed at my arm, trying to haul me to my feet. I didn't get far, only being able to get myself in a slumped over, semi-upright position. Someone pat at my face and shined something _far_ too bright in my eyes as the familiar whirr of the sonic reached my ears and sound began returning.

"…concussion. Best not move him right now unless we have to."

 _Doctor… Amy… Where's Amy?_ Panic welled in me and I tried to get up, but River held me down.

"Leon. Leon, you have a concussion. You can't be moving!"

"A-Amy. The Angels." I blurted out, trying and failing to get my scattered thoughts back in order.

"No, it's alright. Amy's here."

"Leon?"

I relaxed as Amy grabbed my hand and I sank back against the cold metal behind me as River explained.

"I used a teleport to bring you both here, but it could only carry one at a time. I took Amy first, sorry."

"N-No. Fine." I grunted, bringing a hand up. "My head…"

"Sorry." Amy apologized. "You must have hit it when I tripped and knocked you over. The Doctor says you have a concussion."

"A rock, I think…" I murmured, before there was a groan and the ship lights flickered and dimmed.

"What's that?"

"The Angels are draining the last of the ship's power, which means the shield's going to release." The Doctor announced and I grimaced as the shield opened before us, revealing the Angels and the bright light behind them.

"Angel Bob, I presume." The Doctor spoke to the one in front holding the comm.

" _The Time Field is coming. It will destroy our reality._ " The Angel said, but my mind was stuck on something else.

Something the Doctor said was trying to press itself to the forefront of my mind, but my concussion was preventing it from sticking and letting me work it out.

"What can I do for you?" The Doctor asked the creature.

" _There is a rupture in time. The Angels calculate that if you throw yourself into it, it will close, and they will be saved._ "

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could do that. But why?" The Doctor questioned.

" _Your friends will also be saved._ "

"No." I murmured, making the Doctor glance back at me. "Then they'll kill us."

The Doctor smirked back at the Angels. "He's got a point. If anyone can find a loophole here, Leon can. Although, he does have a concussion. Leon, you should get a grip."

I furrowed my brows, hearing a message in that, but not quite understanding.

"Doctor, I can't let you do this." River pressed, and that's when it hit me.

 _Oh… Oh, the power is being drained._ All _the power. The gravity is going to fail._ I grabbed River and Amy's hands, and pressed them to the rail.

"Grip." I breathed out, forcing myself to my knees to at least loop my arm around the railing as it clicked in River's mind.

"Oh, you geniuses." She breathed out explaining to Amy that she needed to hold on as the Doctor continued to confront Angel Bob.

"Thing is, Bob, the Angels are draining all the power from this ship. Every last bit of it. And you know what? I think they've forgotten where they're standing. I think they've forgotten the gravity of the situation. Or to put it another way, Angels. Night, night."

The Doctor turned around and grabbed the railing as he held onto me, which I was grateful for, because I wasn't sure if I had much strength with my head pounding. Our feet left the ground as the ship tilted and the Angels fell back into the light. With them gone, the crack shut and gravity returned, dropping us back to the ground; safe.

* * *

"Uh, bruised _everywhere_." Amy complained, wrapped up in a blanket beside Leon, who cringed as the Doctor dabbed at a cut on his forehead.

"Tell me about it." He grumbled as the Doctor gave Amy a look.

"You didn't have to climb out with your eyes shut. I kept saying. The Angels all fell into the Time Field. The Angel in your memory never existed. It can't harm you now."

"Then why did Leon and I remember it at all? Those guys on the ship didn't remember each other." Amy questioned.

"You're a time traveler now, Amy. It changes the way you see the universe, forever. Good, isn't it." The Doctor smiled, placing a few butterfly stitches on Leon.

"And the crack, is that gone too?"

Leon glanced briefly at Amy, but stayed silent; the crack having been explained to him on the way out of the ship.

"Yeah, for now. But the explosion that caused it is still happening. Somewhere out there, somewhere in time." He pat Leon's shoulder and wandered over to where River was waiting with some clerics who's stayed up on the beach.

"You, me, handcuffs. Must it always end this way?" River hummed as he came up beside her.

"What now?" He asked when her cuffs beeped.

"The prison ship's in orbit. They'll beam me up any second. I might have done enough to earn a pardon this time. We'll see."

"Octavian said you killed a man."

"Yes, I did." She admitted, unflinching.

"A good man."

"A very good man. The second best man I've ever known."

The Doctor's brows furrowed. "Who's the first?"

River smiled, glancing behind him and making him turn to Leon, who was swatting at Amy's prodding fingers. The Doctor turned back to River.

"Who was it?" He asked, regarding the man she'd killed, and she chuckled.

"It's a long story. Doctor. It can't be told; it has to be lived. No sneak previews. Well, except for this one. You'll see me again quite soon, when the Pandorica opens."

The Doctor scoffed. "The Pandorica. Ha! That's a fairy tale."

River laughed. "Doctor, aren't we all? I'll see you there."

"I look forward to it."

"I remember it well." She paused then, glancing at Leon briefly before leaning in towards the Doctor. "Keep an eye on him. He may not look it, but he's hurting, Doctor. And he has been for a long while. It'll take more than a bandage to help him."

The Doctor nodded, serious as Amy and Leon came over to say their goodbyes.

"Bye River." Amy mused, making River chuckle.

"See you, Amy."

Leon went over then and bobbed his head. "River."

She smiled, bringing her hands up and cupping his face, much to his surprise. "Oh, Leon. Keep fighting those dragons and never let them get to you."

She leaned in and kissed him, pulling away before her cuffs beeped again, smiling at his stunned expression.

"Oh, I think that's my ride."

The Doctor spoke, looking between her and Leon slightly uncomfortably. "Can I trust you, River Song?"

"If you like." She chuckled. "But where's the fun in that?"

She was gone with a gust of wind then and Leon pulled a hand through his hair as he joined Amy and the Doctor looking out at the sea.

"What're you thinking?" Amy asked the Doctor, who smiled and draped an arm across Leon's shoulders.

"Time can be rewritten."

"Doesn't sound like a smart idea to me." Leon muttered and the Doctor laughed, patting him heartedly on the back as they went to the Tardis.

Amy sat on the jump-seat as the Doctor prepared to send them off and Leon leaned against a railing.

"I want to go home." Amy suddenly said and Leon looked to her in surprise, whereas the Doctor didn't even turn.

"Okay."

Amy smiled and got up, hearing his disappointment. "No, not like that. I just… I just want to show you something. You're running from River. I'm running too."

Leon watched her, suspicious of the sudden change of heart, but he remained silent as the Doctor brought them back to Amy's room. Once they landed, the group went to walk out, but Amy turned to Leon and stopped him.

"Actually, could you stay here for a second, Leon? I… I want to talk to the Doctor alone."

Leon stiffened, but begrudgingly gave in with a small nod, moving back towards the jump-seat as the Doctor spared him a final glance and walked out with Amy. They sat on the edge of her bed and the Doctor stared at the wedding gown hanging up on Amy's wardrobe door, uncertain.

"Well…"

"Yeah."

"Blimey." He muttered.

"I know. This is the same night we left, yeah?"

He checked his watch. "We've been gone five minutes."

Amy reached over and picked up the little red velvet box with her engagement ring in it. "I'm getting married in the morning."

The Doctor took it from her, running a finger over it. "Why did you leave it here?"

Amy raised a brow, questioning his cluelessness. "Why did I leave my engagement ring when I ran away with a strange man the night before my wedding?"

"Yeah."

"Hm, you really are an alien, aren't you?"

"Who's the lucky fellow?" The Doctor asked, changing the topic at the look Amy was giving him.

"You met him."

"Ah, the good looking one. Or the other one?" He gestured to his nose and Amy smacked his leg.

"The other one."

"Well, he was good too."

"Thanks… So, do you comfort a lot of people on the night before their wedding?" She asked, shifting a little closer.

"Why would you need comforting?"

"I nearly died." She replied. "I was alone in the dark."

"You had Leon!" The Doctor argued, a little offended on the young man's behalf.

Amy rolled her eyes. " _Almost_ alone, and I nearly died. It made me think."

"Well, yes. Natural. I think sometimes. Well, lots of times." The Doctor said, frowning still.

"About what I want…" Amy continued, before correcting herself. "About _who_ I want. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah… No." The Doctor said, confused.

"About _who_ I want." Amy repeated, giving him a meaningful look.

"Oh, right. Yeah…" Then he changed his mind. "No. Still not getting it."

Amy sighed. "Doctor. In a word. In one very simple word even you can understand." She leaned in, attempting to kiss him and he backed up and over the edge of the bed with her following.

"No!" He shouted, panicking a bit. "You're getting married in the morning!"

"Well, the morning's a long time away. What are we going to do about that?" She asked, pressing him up against the Tardis and sliding off his suspenders.

"Amy, listen to me. I am nine hundred and seven years old." The Doctor tried to reason with her, slipping them back on. "Do you understand what that means?"

"It's been a while?" She quipped.

"Yeah. No, no, no!" He corrected, berating himself. "I'm nine hundred and seven, and look at me. I don't get older, I just change. You get older, I don't, and this can't ever work."

"Oh, you're sweet, Doctor." Amy mused. "But I really wasn't suggesting anything quite so long term."

She pressed her lips to his, but he immediately pushed her off.

"But you're human! You're Amy! You're getting married in the morning and Leon's still in the Tardis and—"

Amy frowned then. "Leon? Why are you bringing him up?"

"W-Well, he's your friend, isn't he? He wouldn't want you doing this." The Doctor replied, a little confused himself as to why he mentioned Leon.

Amy groaned though, dropping onto her bed. "Oh, this is great. This is all him, isn't it? Has his name written all over it."

"What?" The Doctor questioned and Amy gave him an annoyed look.

"Leon." She answered. "You like him, don't you?"

"Of course I do! I like him, you, Jammie Dodgers, the occasional—"

"No! I mean, you _like_ him!"

"W-What?!" The Doctor exclaimed, waving his hands and stuttering. "No! I just explained this! I'm nine hundred and seven and—"

"And it will never work out, but you do, don't you?" Amy questioned, starting to smirk despite her jealousy. "You _like_ him."

"Amy. _Amy._ " The Doctor pressed. "You're getting married in the morning and Leon—" He stopped, realizing something. "In the morning…"

"Doctor?"

"It's you." He declared, making her raise a brow. "It's all about you. Everything. It's about you. Amy Pond. Mad, impossible, Amy Pond. I don't know why, I have no idea, but quite possibly the single most important thing in the history of the universe is that I get you sorted out right now."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you, but _apparently_ Leon's a little more important in your books."

The Doctor ignored her, pulling her up from the bed. "Come on!"


End file.
